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Created Dec 03, 2016 02:28PM PST • Edited Dec 18, 2016 11:00PM PST

1. Quality

2. Summary

   OK 2.5

   Plodding, pretentious and predictable aren’t the attributes of high quality SciFi. Yet Arrival has been bathed in positive reviews. Amy Adams’ laudable performance notwithstanding, this praise is seriously mistaken. OK, perhaps I’d be less strident about this if the high marks hadn’t led me to waste a theater trip.

   But they did. Now I get some recompense. Let’s start with Arrival being predictable in blaming we flawed humans for awkwardly dealing with the unimaginable, while also taking unsupported leaps in the story. In fairness, I slumbered through the middle of this plodding movie, so may have missed a clue as to why subtitles started appearing below alien symbols. But it seemed a cheap contrivance under any circumstance. Finally, is it pretentious? Any more so and it would have monks chanting on the soundtrack.

   Bottom Line

   Arrival aspires to be an E.T. for adults dealing with loss. The exploration of loss succeeds. The rest fails.

4. Acting

   Very Good 3.5

   Amy Adams has become a well-rounded moviestar, here playing a glamour-free woman dealing imperfectly with loss. It’s a performance of understated magnificence.

   • Forest Whitaker oozes gravitas as a senior military officer dealing with the unimaginable. Bravo!
   • Jeremy Renner energetically plays a fellow scientist.
   • Michael Stuhlbarg disappoints again (after Dr. Strange) as a government mucky-muck.
   • Tzi Ma is both empathetic and forceful as a Chinese general.

5. Male Stars Very Good 3.5

6. Female Stars Really Great 4.5

   Amy Adams

7. Female Costars OK 2.5

8. Male Costars Great 4.0

   Forest Whitaker & Tzi Ma

10. Film

    OK 2.5

    Arrival seems to want to prove a point more than tell a tale. Worse, it takes unsupported shortcuts in the narrative. Ultimately, it feels like a Fifties scifi flick updated for the politically correct 21st century.

11. Direction OK 2.5

    Denis Villeneuve is a capable director, albeit an awfully mannered one, as he proved in Sicario & Prisoners.

12. Play Barely OK 2.0

    In fairness, the story thread of parental loss is well conceived and executed.

13. Music Good 3.0

14. Visuals Barely OK 2.0
15. Content

16. Edge

    Tame 1.5

17. Sex Innocent 1.3

18. Violence Gentle 1.4

19. Rudeness Salty 1.7

21. Reality

    Supernatural 3.4

22. Circumstantial Surreal 2.5

23. Biological Supernatural 3.9

24. Physical Supernatural 3.9