The entire movie is spoiled in this review.
The movie starts with Amy Adams being a linguist professor, who's so unimportant that students doesn't even pay attention to her in the university lessons she teaches. Then, an alien invasion happens, and she's suddenly the first person the government can think of, when they need someone to decipher alien language. I don't have to explain why this doesn't make sense.
Then, she meets these aliens, who look like squids. (Much have been made by the design of the space ship and the aliens, and I'm probably the only person on earth who was satisfied by their minimalist appearance. It was meant to look otherworldly, yet not enough to be a distraction to the story, and I think they did a fine job. Aliens can look like anything, so why not a giant black squid, with other little black squids for hands? The filmmakers know nothing about what an alien looks like, but neither do you) This is where to movie truly falls apart, and the reason for all of the hyperbolic one-star reviews:
At the end of the movie, you know that the language of the aliens allow them to understand time as non-linear(which apparently also means that they can see the future). But for some reason - sometime in 3000 years - the aliens are going to need our help. And to assure loyalty, they give us the gift of understanding time, by forcing us to decipher their language; taking their time to ensure that the conflicts around world leaders are resolved in the process.
But WHY did Amy Adams possess the ability to see the future without having learned the language at first? What made her so special? There's no explanation for any of this, and I also think it's lazy to not tell us whether we are in control of our future or not.
It seems minor, but this is a sci-fi movie that clearly places emotions and character above colorful, advanced space-ships. And soooo much time is being spent on tricking you into feeling sorry for the main character, by showing what appears to be flashbacks of a child growing up and dying of cancer - only to realize at the end, that she doesn't know what's going on, either, because everything she saw was something that happened in the future.
I also don't think that romance is the most beautiful thing that ever happened in the entire world, or even the most touching thing about humanity. This may be why I also wasn't impressed with the reveal that one of the guys from The Avengers turned out to be her future husband. I don't care! I want to know about the aliens!
The movie could make the romance-thing interesting, but it never takes the obvious chances to do so. Best example I can think of is, that our main character knows that if she gets a child with future husband, then that child will die of cancer. But she also knows that in the future, she will keep this a secret her husband, and chooses to have the child anyway. When she eventually tells him the truth, he will leave her and the child.
So many things could've been done with this. It's an interesting moral question, because even though the daughter's life was very beautiful and valuable, her husband might think otherwise. And why shouldn't he? Why should she be born, only to die before her life begun? But the movie never tells us outright what our main character will do with this knowledge, or if it condemns/applauds her for her actions.
In short, it's annoying to watch a movie that has such an emotional feel to it, but never takes a stand regarding it's characters. It also doesn't always make sense. I think someone very brilliant behind this movie wanted to do too much, and lost their way.
The movie starts with Amy Adams being a linguist professor, who's so unimportant that students doesn't even pay attention to her in the university lessons she teaches. Then, an alien invasion happens, and she's suddenly the first person the government can think of, when they need someone to decipher alien language. I don't have to explain why this doesn't make sense.
Then, she meets these aliens, who look like squids. (Much have been made by the design of the space ship and the aliens, and I'm probably the only person on earth who was satisfied by their minimalist appearance. It was meant to look otherworldly, yet not enough to be a distraction to the story, and I think they did a fine job. Aliens can look like anything, so why not a giant black squid, with other little black squids for hands? The filmmakers know nothing about what an alien looks like, but neither do you) This is where to movie truly falls apart, and the reason for all of the hyperbolic one-star reviews:
At the end of the movie, you know that the language of the aliens allow them to understand time as non-linear(which apparently also means that they can see the future). But for some reason - sometime in 3000 years - the aliens are going to need our help. And to assure loyalty, they give us the gift of understanding time, by forcing us to decipher their language; taking their time to ensure that the conflicts around world leaders are resolved in the process.
But WHY did Amy Adams possess the ability to see the future without having learned the language at first? What made her so special? There's no explanation for any of this, and I also think it's lazy to not tell us whether we are in control of our future or not.
It seems minor, but this is a sci-fi movie that clearly places emotions and character above colorful, advanced space-ships. And soooo much time is being spent on tricking you into feeling sorry for the main character, by showing what appears to be flashbacks of a child growing up and dying of cancer - only to realize at the end, that she doesn't know what's going on, either, because everything she saw was something that happened in the future.
I also don't think that romance is the most beautiful thing that ever happened in the entire world, or even the most touching thing about humanity. This may be why I also wasn't impressed with the reveal that one of the guys from The Avengers turned out to be her future husband. I don't care! I want to know about the aliens!
The movie could make the romance-thing interesting, but it never takes the obvious chances to do so. Best example I can think of is, that our main character knows that if she gets a child with future husband, then that child will die of cancer. But she also knows that in the future, she will keep this a secret her husband, and chooses to have the child anyway. When she eventually tells him the truth, he will leave her and the child.
So many things could've been done with this. It's an interesting moral question, because even though the daughter's life was very beautiful and valuable, her husband might think otherwise. And why shouldn't he? Why should she be born, only to die before her life begun? But the movie never tells us outright what our main character will do with this knowledge, or if it condemns/applauds her for her actions.
In short, it's annoying to watch a movie that has such an emotional feel to it, but never takes a stand regarding it's characters. It also doesn't always make sense. I think someone very brilliant behind this movie wanted to do too much, and lost their way.