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I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
Really is a good view.
I know that I enjoyed this movie but I don't remember it at all. Yay, I get to watch it again like it's new.
I didn’t know how it was going to end, at any point during the movie.
That’s a good thing
Yeah, genuinely one of my favourite original sci-fi movies I've watched in the last decade. I did a linguistics course in high school so just really loved that side of it. It also really felt like they did a great job building the tension and making it feel like there were high stakes to her work.
It's not original, though it expands on Ted Chiang's short story "Story of Your Life".
I suppose you are going to tell everyone that Dune was based on a book the next time someone compliments the pacing and direction of that movie?
The poster art for Arrival says it's based on a story by Ted Chiang, it isn't some secret nobody knows but you.
What does being original or not have anything to do with what the original commenter wrote? MOST movies are based on previously existing stories. They were focusing on the movie. If you read the book and want to show everyone how much more you know than they do, it would be more impressive if you had said "i read the story the movie was based on, and comparatively, ". It might have even made for an interesting and productive comment.
I had no idea what I was watching when I sat down in the theater. My friend had bought the ticket and I just showed up. I didn't know ANYTHING.
One of the best experiences of my life and it turned me into a Denis Villeneuve super fan.
Same. I'm skeptical of most newer movies given all the rehashes and sequels. The presentation of the aliens had me shaking a little bit!
Loved the movie! Such a great concept and so elegantly made. But the tagged on love story kind of took me out of it. Could almost hear the producers pushing that love story for wider audience appeal.
It happens in the short story too.
The producers got to the book too!?
No okay did not know that. So maybe my problem is with the general need to put love stories into stories. Or maybe it was written better in the book? Might have to read the book now
I'm not sure how to spoiler tag so I'll be vague, but I think it was necessary to have her opt into that romance even though she knew there was a tragic ending to it.
Oh and the short story is very good, as is Ted Chiang's entire collection. I would definitely recommend reading them to any scifi fan.
The concept of linguistics changing the way we understand the world is interesting but i cannot enjoy a movie that portrays other countries as unreasonable warmongers and incompetent while portraying the US as reasonable and brilliant.
The best sound design team. I also love the ability of the visual design team to give a true feeling of scale and weight to things.
Could you be also recommend a few generic alien invasion movies?
If you haven't seen it, District 9 is a good non-standard 'invasion' movie
you can watch skyline if you want to watch nothing new or interesting.
I watched it for the first time last year without knowing anything about it and, as someone who loves to nerd out about anything linguistics related (am translator, for context), I cannot describe how gleeful I was that such subjects had center focus in a big blockbuster like that. Obviously the other aspects of the movie were amazing as well and the story got me very emotional by the end, but I will never shut up about how interesting and important that translation/communication aspect of the movie was.
The thing I remember about this movie was that India got mad one of the fictional aliens from this movie decided to land in Pakistan instead of India.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.
The other thing I remember was that they for some reason decided to show the location on the map as "Punjab, Pakistan" which is even more generic because it's a province not a city.
I could see India being upset over that because it's disputed territory. Edit: This is incorrect, Kashmir is the disputed territory.
No that's Kashmir.
Punjab is technically a region that also happens to be the name of the province in both Pakistan and India since they both encompass the same region.
Thanks, that second fact is what threw me off! So they could have said either and it should not have been seen as a political statement either way (which is how I saw India being upset over it.)
This was a good one. Definitely recommend
It's based on a short story called "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang. He's published only eighteen stories in his career (starting in 1990), nothing longer than a novella and mostly short stories. Despite that they've won him four Hugos, four Nebulas, and six Locus Awards. He's worth reading, is what I'm trying to say.
The short story was OK but this is one of the few cases where the movie did it better, added flavor to it that wasn’t in the book but carries the emotional hit farther.
The short stories in that book felt very “woah dude” to me, in the end I finished it but didn’t like it all that much. I’ve been downvoted for this opinion before, but oh well.
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This movie absolutely destroyed me emotionally for like a week. I was wholly unprepared for what this movie was really about. I was expecting an alien invasion movie and got a brickload of emotions dumped on my heart.
Same. Saw it a few months before my first child was born and it opened up something in me that I didn’t know was there. I’ve never watched a movie that made me weep until this one. Full on sobbing. Watched it again a week later, wasn’t a fluke - sobbed again.
The aliens reminded me of the Tralfamadorians from Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five.
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I need to give this a rewatch
Read the short story before re-watching. Definitely gives you a better perspective.
For anyone wondering, the music that just destroys you in the movie is by the amazing Max Richter. The song is On The Nature of Daylight.
PS: He recently released a piano arrangement of the song.
This song is everywhere if you look. I heard it in Shutter Island first.
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Still one of my favourite movies ever
I'd like to watch this and Annihilation again. I've only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.
Two of my absolute favorite movies. They are both amazing examinations of contact with life that functions completely differently than us, albeit in very different ways
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Yeah its one of my favorite movies
Definitely a top 20 in my book, one of my wife's top 5. I also love the book, it's very short story, you can probably read it in the time it'd take to watch the movie (I'm a slow reader and did it in a few hours), it doesn't add too much, but it's a bit of interesting mathematical philosophy which I found quite endearing.
The world is shocked to discover that Terry’s Chocolate Oranges are actually seed pods for intelligent extra terrestrial life.
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this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2025
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