I watched Arrival (2016), there was a lot more to it than I was expecting
I watched Arrival (2016), there was a lot more to it than I was expecting
I was expecting a generic alien invasion movie, and I was pleasantly surprised
You're viewing a single thread.
spoiler
I didn't care for it at all, I felt the memory as time travel thing to be weaksacue, and I felt ripped off at the end of watching it, plus I don't like her very much at all
Spoiler
Of course its totally fine to not like a movie, but I wanted to clarify the memory as time travel thing.
I can't remember where I first heard this, it wasn't this movie, but suppose humans are oddly fixated on the flow of time. To us the flow of time is immutable we exist in the present and remember the past. What if other races could "remember" things that haven't happened yet as easily as we remember things from the past.
The movie kinda proposes that learning human languages traps us into this linear / temporal mode of thinking. As in, as children we learn to parse things start to finish and that's it... we just never do it the other way future to now.
Turns out I've done a shit job at explaining this.
As I said, it's fine to hate the movie. I just thought I'd try to explain this part because I felt like I understood it, although I'm not sure anymore.
I think you explained it quite well. I just read the story and was a bit confused by the ending but this clarified it for me.
Major spoilers ahead! (struggling with the spoiler tag!)
!spoiler The story reads like she's in the present and you assume her memories of her daughter are in the past. Then looking back at the language used, she's describing memories of her daughter with language that indicates it's in the future, not the past. So it stands to reason that the encounters with the heptapods are in the present and learning their language gives her the ability to 'see' the future I assume Gary is her daughter's father. Just like she mentions of the readers of the Book of Ages, she won't do anything to change the future even if she knows what's coming, even if it means a future where her daughter dies young.
spoiler
Yes, Gary is the father. He's ended up leaving her (in the future) because he found out she had the future knowledge of their daughter's early death but went ahead with having her anyway.
!spoiler Ah? I didn't catch that, I thought they divorced when the daughter was still alive given the parts about dating someone else? Where in the story did you catch that bit?
As someone with differing opinions from the zeitgeist on a variety of topics, I appreciate your sincere and well-reasoned dissention
Same, tbh. I can't say I felt ripped off, but it was definitely a disappointment.
I get into Sci Fi, time travel and obscure concepts, and I have to agree with you mainly. It ended and I kinda felt like, "yeah OK". Another person here has said that it should be watched again. Like what, did I miss something ? Anyway, it's entertainment and each to their own. Maybe I should watch it again one day, but it will be a while.
It depends. What were you expecting and what was your takeaway after watching? Because to me, it didn’t have anything to do with the time travel or scifi aspects at all.
The main point of the film is summed up with the line “If you could see your whole life from start to finish, would you change things?”. It was about free will and the main character’s decision to let things play out knowing her daughter will die at an early age, because if she didn’t have her, she wouldn’t have experienced the life she had with her daughter at all. It’s a philosophical story wrapped in a scifi film.
I think the impact, if any, that it has on the viewer depends on their answer to that question. I enjoyed the movie, but thought the characters acted like emotionally rife teenagers, and that the decisions they made were wrong. I've never felt like rewatching it. I'd make a bet that all of the others in the comments who absolutely loved the movie agreed with the characters' ultimate decisions.
That part of the story was heavily hollywoodized. I highly recommend reading the original story.
I'm in the same boat. I enjoyed the short story more, but mostly because it didn't feel as over the top. The wacky alien mechanic works better in print IMO.