ARRIVAL: Not Your Average Sci-Fi
From the trailers and many posters, 'ARRIVAL' is set to seem like your average, Sci-Fi film that features aliens, the government and a doctor who is summoned by the powers that be to do some top secret work to save all of humanity, but it is far from it.
Fueled by emotion, self-discovery, and language; this is not your standard Sci-Fi movie. This film instantly reels you in with emotion in a matter of seconds when introduced to the main character, Dr. Louise Banks (Amy Adams).
When mysterious spacecrafts touch down across the globe, an elite team - lead by expert linguist Louise Banks - is brought together to investigate. As mankind teeters on the verge of global war, Banks, and the team race against time for answers – and to find them, she will take a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
'ARRIVAL' will take you on an adventure with its constant twists and turns that you did not see coming. This film is so unique and thought-provoking, that when the credits are long gone, you will be discussing it for hours. Packed with so much intellect, it makes you think and proves that science fiction can be more than aliens, guns, and battles. This movie tells the human side of the story.
The cinematography for the film was amazingly breathtaking and visually stimulating.
Renowned cinematographer, Bradford Young (Selma; A Most Violent Year) sat down with THAheadline to discuss his work on the film, 'ARRIVAL'.
From capturing the delicate moments such as the flashback sequences focused on Louise's deceased, young daughter, to his style in depicting the elite team of researchers entering into the humongous spaceship, Young's cinematography captures the sense of wonder perfectly.
Dr. Banks' visions of her daughter carry throughout the film and each vision is an extremely important piece to the story. Young did a phenomenal job making sure the audience could visually connect to Bank's visions, and when asked, "How did you do it?", Young said, "I made sure to connect it to the relationship I have with my children."
"The way I helped visualize those flashbacks or flash-forward moments in the film was to really try and connect to my relationship I have with my children. At the time, I had one child and I have two now, but I would use my off time with him (my son) as a way to inform how I photographed Louise's relationship with Hannah in the film. It was one of those things where, I had to be acutely honest to what my everyday life looked like and, I felt like if I was doing that in the film, Denis (Director, Denis Villeneuve) and I would be doing right by the story," said Young. He continued, "That's one of those moments where you really, really allow real life and real time to influence your art. A relationship between a parent and a child is so imperfect, it's so pure, it's so challenging, it's so joyous, it's so euphoric, that whenever you try to slide untruthful things into that process, everybody sees it. In order to protect ourselves from what we thought would be overly aesthetic bits and pieces of the film, we just said, 'hey, let's just treat this like an everyday Tuesday morning moment with your kids', and if we did that, we felt like we were doing the right thing."
Writing a review on this film is extremely hard because it is almost impossible to describe without spoilers. The 'ARRIVAL' is an extraordinary film that will leave you mesmerized, it is greatly entertaining, and hits theaters everywhere November 11, 2016.