10 Great Sci-Fi Movies With Terrible Concepts
6. Arrival
Is there anything more gripping and intense than watching translators work?
Okay, so interpreting one language into another isn't necessarily the most glamorous or fascinating job on Earth. But speaking of Earth, aliens are fun, right?
Sure, but mostly only if they don't come in peace. Viewers love to watch Roland Emmerich's alien spaceships demolish the White House and get demolished in return, but lengthy attempts at mediation? Boring!
Watching a linguist attempt to establish contact with alien life forms via carefully managed mediated attempts at communication should not be as gripping as Dennis Villeneuve’s thoughtful sci-fi Arrival proves to be. So it's no surprise that sci-fi fans are excited to see the visionary director rebooting Frank Herbert's epic doorstopper Dune. After all, Villeneuve salvaged the promise hidden in this seemingly terrible premise.
The director took an innovative approach to time travel and used it to make this story of Amy Adams' linguist and her attempts to translate alien communication into an intense and involving sci-fi thriller. A stand out genre effort from 2016, this thoughtful and mature piece of sci-fi proved almost any idea can work with the right angle.