WARNING!!! FULL SPOILERS FOR ARRIVAL!!!! CONSIDER YOURSELF WARNED!!!
I just got home today after seeing Arrival. It was a good movie, with a great cast, great acting, great plot and pretty original ideas… until the end. Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate that it took some time for thought after the movie had finished for a friend to figure out and tell me that the “flashbacks” were really flash-forwards (glimpses of the future). However, even though it was a clever plot twist that brought things full-circle (no pun intended), the ending seemed just a tad unoriginal and didn’t resolve everything as I would have liked. For instance, the aliens said that humanity would help them 3,000-some years into the future, but we don’t know how any of that’s going to happen.
Of course, one could argue that since this is a story that centers around Louise’s (Amy Adams’) life, and that she would be long gone before the aliens would need any help. On top of that, the aliens were also trying to bring the world closer together, which we saw happening in the movie. So it might seem like the ending was a good idea, for the sake of the immediate plot, and so as not to stretch the movie out too long, but while the ends justify the means, I still feel a bit cheated. It almost feels like having your cake but not being able to eat it. I just think it would have been better to see a bit of the legacy of the plot, an epilogue, maybe.
As always, please let me know what you think in the comments below. Thanks!
sulphuricchipmunk 