The films about alien contact are quite numerous and what the aliens mainly do is abduct, examine, infiltrate, ravage, enslave, observe, attack the humanity. In the rare cases where aliens' intentions are peaceful and harmless, it is usually no problem to understand them. All this does is hinder believability and suspense, and the main question in probably 90% of alien movies is "What do they look like?" or “How can humanity win?” However, this film primarily addresses the question “Why am I here?” It illustrates the main problem with alien contact: even if Earth is one day visited by an advanced, peaceful alien race seeking to establish contact, both sides will most likely be unable to understand each other. Contact means communication, and the latter is hardly possible without language. The problem of translation therefore becomes extremely topical, and Arrival deals with this. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Arrival is a 2016 American science fiction film directed by Denis Villeneuve and written by Eric Heisserer. It is based on the 1998 short story "Story of Your Life" by Ted Chiang and stars Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner and Forest Whitaker. He won an Oscar as well as 65 awards with a total of 250 nominations. It's basically about a linguist who works with the military to communicate with alien life forms after twelve mysterious spacecraft appear across the world. Like all the best science fiction, Arrival has something pertinent to say about today's world; in particular on the importance of communication. It is perhaps one of the most, if not the most, realistic first contact stories to come from Hollywood visionaries. It's in a decidedly more idealistic key of hope than most films of this genre, where the best solutions don't necessarily materialize in the sights of a gun. He is much more interested in profound truths about language, imagination and human relationships. Communication, or the lack thereof, has always been a major obstacle to equitable interactions between cultures; this story takes this notion to an engaging and powerful extreme. There's a simple yet profound way he tells his story, and it's worthy of applause. Unfortunately, the film doesn't explain much, though. It doesn't explain much about how and why aliens are able to see the future. It desperately lacks detail. It seems that the creators of the film focused more on Louise's memories and conversations with aliens rather than explaining the huge gap between the mentality of the Heptapods and that of humans, and without it the plot of the film, the motivations of the characters and the role of Heptapod written language remain unclear. . Overall, everything about Arrival is the aesthetics, the narrative, the ideas, and the performances are great too. Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a Custom Essay In conclusion, Arrival is a crowd-pleasing film that successfully focuses on the importance of communication rather than being a typical alien movie.