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Just saw this movie yesterday. I really enjoyed it. I don't want to give anything away so spoiler tags for the rest of my thoughts on the film.
Go watch it. Try not to get distracted by the weird accent that Forrest Whitaker occasionally adopts at random times throughout the movie.
So I thought the pacing of this movie was pretty damn good. Structure as well. I like that they played with your expectations regarding the fairly well trod trope of using experiences from your past to help you in the present (Slumdog Millionaire is the first movie that comes to mind but I know there are plenty of others that have done this). So it was easy to assume everything with the daughter was flashbacks.
I also enjoyed that everything wasn't spoonfed to the viewers. After the bomb and the firefight between the rogue soldiers, we move on, no need for exposition that wraps up what happened in a nice bow. I'm sure there were some casualties and either those rogue soldiers were killed or arrested.
I liked that they showed the initial and gradual process of learning and communicating with the aliens and then bridged it with a montage to show the progress they've made. I'm aware montages are nothing new but I think it was well placed in the film.
As the movie progressed, I started to get a sick feeling that this was going to be similar to Interstellar and the aliens were gonna be the dead daughter communicating with the mother.
I know everyone got the "twist" (it's not really a twist IMO) at a different point in time. They didn't really hide it, in the opening scene Amy Adams is discussing beginnings and endings. But anyway, the clincher for me was when they were discussing non zero sum-game, and the flashforward to talking with her daughter and she responds "if you want science, talk to your father." That's when I pieced together that all the events with her daughter happened after the contact with the aliens and learning their language, because I realized Renner was her future husband.
Are there plotholes in this movie? I'm sure there are. But as far as paradoxes go in "time-travel" movies (although this isn't really time-travel, only in Amy Adams memories) this is fairly straightforward IMO. Once I mulled over the whole satelitte phone/Chinese general sequence for awhile I think I have a grasp on it.
The whole "we will need the humans help in 3000 years" I'm still unclear on though.
Overall a very good movie and it brings up interesting questions too.
I also enjoyed that everything wasn't spoonfed to the viewers. After the bomb and the firefight between the rogue soldiers, we move on, no need for exposition that wraps up what happened in a nice bow. I'm sure there were some casualties and either those rogue soldiers were killed or arrested.
I liked that they showed the initial and gradual process of learning and communicating with the aliens and then bridged it with a montage to show the progress they've made. I'm aware montages are nothing new but I think it was well placed in the film.
As the movie progressed, I started to get a sick feeling that this was going to be similar to Interstellar and the aliens were gonna be the dead daughter communicating with the mother.
I know everyone got the "twist" (it's not really a twist IMO) at a different point in time. They didn't really hide it, in the opening scene Amy Adams is discussing beginnings and endings. But anyway, the clincher for me was when they were discussing non zero sum-game, and the flashforward to talking with her daughter and she responds "if you want science, talk to your father." That's when I pieced together that all the events with her daughter happened after the contact with the aliens and learning their language, because I realized Renner was her future husband.
Are there plotholes in this movie? I'm sure there are. But as far as paradoxes go in "time-travel" movies (although this isn't really time-travel, only in Amy Adams memories) this is fairly straightforward IMO. Once I mulled over the whole satelitte phone/Chinese general sequence for awhile I think I have a grasp on it.
The whole "we will need the humans help in 3000 years" I'm still unclear on though.
Overall a very good movie and it brings up interesting questions too.
Go watch it. Try not to get distracted by the weird accent that Forrest Whitaker occasionally adopts at random times throughout the movie.