4 ms·

It's very good, I'd recommend seeing it. Avoid spoilers if you can. The cinematography is gorgeous and the whole movie just feels extremely tight and well put

by DGAP 10y ago

It's very good, I'd recommend seeing it. Avoid spoilers if you can. The cinematography is gorgeous and the whole movie just feels extremely tight and well put together with nothing extraneous. Its small flaws are overshadowed by just how good it is. HN commenters just like to shit on things as soon as they're popular to feel smart.

sandworm101 10y ago
>> Avoid spoilers if you can. That's another red flag for me. The great scifi remains watchable over and over. Knowing the plot, not being surprised, should not take much away from a properly good movie. When people tell me not to read spoilers they are suggesting to me that the film is considerably less watchable without the surprises. True be told, pretty much every "giant ships" scifi follows the predictable path. We see the ships, we get scared. Some government types then want to nuke them while a band of heros (a couple government types + an emotionally-damaged scientist + the human interest character) tries to convince everyone to calm down and see the good in the aliens (Godzilla 2015). Or the opposite, where the scientist is the one screaming danger (Independence Day). The only surprise is whether or not the world actually ends ... but knowing that fact in advance doesn't take much from a good movie. We knew that the aliens would eventually die (it was a War of the Worlds remake) and we knew that Godzilla would win. They remain as watchable the second or tenth time you see them.
- schoen 10y ago
  While the Hollywood-added differences from Chiang's story are pretty much just as you described, there is also a plot arc retained from the original that's different from this.
- macintux 10y ago
  I'd gladly rewatch it, but is it really so hard to imagine that a surprising plot is worth being unspoiled? You're trying awfully hard to dislike a movie you haven't seen.
  - sandworm101 10y ago
    >> You're trying awfully hard to dislike a movie you haven't seen. I am. I do try hard. I've been burnt by too many movies. If am only going to see one in a given month (at the theatre) I don't want to waste that opportunity. I don't think I am alone in heavily criticizing how a movie is promoted as part of the decision. One of the reasons I went to DrStrange was that the movie had not been so heavily promoted. It's a standard superhero movie, but the lack of exaggerated claims gave me confidence. The last time I allowed someone else to take me to a "critically acclaimed" movie I ended up cringing through Twelve Years a Slave. Or Contact, which I only sat through because I was with people. If Arrival is anything like Contact I want to know that in advance.
    - macintux 10y ago
      I'm pretty well disconnected from mass media, but was Arrival really more hyped than Dr. Strange? I hadn't even heard of Arrival until it, well, arrived. Anyway, speaking as someone who saw it for $5, I'd pay thrice that to see it again (and probably will). I found it much more compelling than Dr. Strange, which I might watch again someday on Netflix.
      - macintux 10y ago
        More that I think about it, makes sense there'd be more of an advertising push for a movie that's rather difficult to describe, even difficult to understand, vs "hey another Marvel Universe film of course you're going to go see it". Definitely doesn't seem fair to complain that Arrival needed to be promoted to make money. Look at what happened to "Iron Giant": fantastic film, completely underwhelming box office because WB had no idea how to market it.
      - runevault 10y ago
        Considering Arrival only got something like half as many screens no it was not nearly as hyped. Frankly I don't think the distributor understood what they had their hands on.
      - sandworm101 10y ago

by DGAP 10y ago

sandworm101 10y ago

>> Avoid spoilers if you can. That's another red flag for me. The great scifi remains watchable over and over. Knowing the plot, not being surprised, should not take much away from a properly good movie. When people tell me not to read spoilers they are suggesting to me that the film is considerably less watchable without the surprises. True be told, pretty much every "giant ships" scifi follows the predictable path. We see the ships, we get scared. Some government types then want to nuke them while a band of heros (a couple government types + an emotionally-damaged scientist + the human interest character) tries to convince everyone to calm down and see the good in the aliens (Godzilla 2015). Or the opposite, where the scientist is the one screaming danger (Independence Day). The only surprise is whether or not the world actually ends ... but knowing that fact in advance doesn't take much from a good movie. We knew that the aliens would eventually die (it was a War of the Worlds remake) and we knew that Godzilla would win. They remain as watchable the second or tenth time you see them.

schoen 10y ago
While the Hollywood-added differences from Chiang's story are pretty much just as you described, there is also a plot arc retained from the original that's different from this.
macintux 10y ago
I'd gladly rewatch it, but is it really so hard to imagine that a surprising plot is worth being unspoiled? You're trying awfully hard to dislike a movie you haven't seen.
- sandworm101 10y ago
  >> You're trying awfully hard to dislike a movie you haven't seen. I am. I do try hard. I've been burnt by too many movies. If am only going to see one in a given month (at the theatre) I don't want to waste that opportunity. I don't think I am alone in heavily criticizing how a movie is promoted as part of the decision. One of the reasons I went to DrStrange was that the movie had not been so heavily promoted. It's a standard superhero movie, but the lack of exaggerated claims gave me confidence. The last time I allowed someone else to take me to a "critically acclaimed" movie I ended up cringing through Twelve Years a Slave. Or Contact, which I only sat through because I was with people. If Arrival is anything like Contact I want to know that in advance.
  - macintux 10y ago
    I'm pretty well disconnected from mass media, but was Arrival really more hyped than Dr. Strange? I hadn't even heard of Arrival until it, well, arrived. Anyway, speaking as someone who saw it for $5, I'd pay thrice that to see it again (and probably will). I found it much more compelling than Dr. Strange, which I might watch again someday on Netflix.
    - macintux 10y ago
      More that I think about it, makes sense there'd be more of an advertising push for a movie that's rather difficult to describe, even difficult to understand, vs "hey another Marvel Universe film of course you're going to go see it". Definitely doesn't seem fair to complain that Arrival needed to be promoted to make money. Look at what happened to "Iron Giant": fantastic film, completely underwhelming box office because WB had no idea how to market it.
    - runevault 10y ago
      Considering Arrival only got something like half as many screens no it was not nearly as hyped. Frankly I don't think the distributor understood what they had their hands on.
    - sandworm101 10y ago