Arrival Review: 10 Reasons It's An Instant Classic
7. The Aliens Are Ingeniously Designed And Even Better Presented
The marketing for Arrival has really upped the mystery of the alien's design and purpose, letting the sight of a floating spheroid do most of the talking. This makes for a nice end-of-first-act reveal, one that could have easily been ruined by overzealous trailer editors. This isn't just refreshing compared to big blockbusters, however, but also further allows the movie to put the onus on the discovery of the extra-terrestrials.
So while they are (without spoilers) pretty ingeniously designed, completely unknown with a wholly unique biology, yet sharing some essential facets of lifeforms from Earth, they're not just cool creations that defy expectations; the exploration of them their culture - is threaded through the movie, the specifics of their entire being slowly expanding alongside our understanding of their primary purpose.
Their communication, their movement, their empathy, which feels so strange, but over the film it becomes subtly more accessible.heir primary purpose. It's