"Smartest Sci Film In Years"

[Dr Markus]

Nolan might feel he has competition, only he'll feel that though.

It’s a long time since a commercial science-fiction movie has addressed itself so directly to big ideas. We should be glad for Arrival

http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20161108-arrival-is-the-smartest-big-budget-sci-fi-film-in-years

[Sneelock]

I'm looking forward to this one. I love me a sci/fi movie and I think I'm pretty impressed with Amy Adams. I saw "Big Eyes" a couple of weeks ago and I thought she was just terrific in that.

[Jimbly]

Christ, The big brain Nolan myth again.

[Moleskin]

I'm looking forward to this.

[Hen Abye Tokensthwaite]

I know nothing about this, but 'Moon' (2009) ought to be the benchmark.

[jimboo]

I liked it , anyone a fan ?

[Goat Boy]

Yes, it's very good.

Sam Rockwell should be a big star

[Snarfyguy]

Yes, it's very good.

Sam Rockwell should be a big star

I'm kind of glad he's not, if you know what I mean.

[Penk!]

I liked it , anyone a fan ?

Arrival or Moon?

Moon was very good if a bit slight. Arrival was OK.

[Penk!]

Copy-pasted from my own post in the "recent viewing" thread a few months ago:

Aliens arrive (get it?) on earth in twelve giant Chocolate Orange slices, and Amy Adams and Jeremy Renner are tasked with trying to communicate with the slice that is in Montana. Well, Amy Adams tries to communicate with them and Jeremy Renner just kind of hangs around and helps her a bit (he's supposedly a physics boffin but doesn't do any actual physics or anything).
There's a very good film about communication and language in here somewhere, but it's muddled by a silly (and slightly politically dodgy) subplot in which the Chinese and Russians (of course it's them!) take a more aggressive approach to their slices, the by-now clichéd and token emotional background (giving characters dead children seems a way of skipping over actually fleshing them out) and a too-obvious twist. The acting is solid and the suspense is good, and the passages where the first breakthroughs are made are compelling, but the audience is never as awed as the characters at the immensity of the experience: the film arrives but then never takes off, and ends up dawdling limply over the finish line.
It's been very highly praised but I think it's another case of the paucity of comparable material getting critics overexcited about some Hollywood sci-fi that does have a bit of intelligence.