Shannon Nutt

You may want to spoiler that. And yes, I know...again, NOT FULLY EXPLAINED!

Furthermore, the aliens' "gift" in this movie is no gift...it's a freakin' curse. It would be something that would almost certainly tear humanity apart, not unite us.

OldBoy

I don't see it as a curse. It prevented the Chinese from all out war and changed the leaders' mind, perhaps forever. Very poignant.

Obi-Wanma

Once I started to figure out where it was going, I liked it, but I agree that the first hour or so of the movie is SO slow and I nearly dozed off several times.

Raul3

I liked the movie.

I saw it without prior knowledge, maybe a couple of trailers. Didn't know there was a "twist", but if you were paying attention pretty quick you would know that one was coming. I hate to be that person, but I figured it out before it was revealed and I was going to tell my wife, but again, didn't want to be that person.

Now, the reason why I liked the movie is because the twist is not the most important part of the movie. Yes, the movie is borrowing from different sources, and yes, I also thought about Contact when watching the movie. If you are sci-fi fan, even if you don't remember the name of the movies/books, you can see the influences. But I think they did a great work using those influences.

The lead actress is the most important part of the movie, she lifts the whole movie, she will probably receive an Oscar nomination, and without her the movie would probably be of lower quality.

I had some issues with the editing though. I didn't find the movie slow. The movie is not short, but doesn't feel too long either. I thought that some parts could be longer, or better explained. But again, maybe was just the editing that felt off in some parts.

Dr. DVD

Caught this opening day with a packed house. I liked it, but I see this movie dropping like a rock next weekend. I truly wonder if something like 2001:ASO were released today it would be both a commercial and critical success. My audience didn't seem to think it sucked, but they definitely seemed indifferent . That said, I am curious to see what Villenuve does with the Blade Runner series.

Shannon Nutt

That's the movie's flaw. I'm talking if something like that actually happened.

devilshalo

Contact, The Abyss, even a little Inception with the ending. I liked it but wondered how many got it. Once she suggests that Abbot & Costello weren't thinking linear, it became clear.

FiveO

Really enjoyed this...going to have to see it again to pick up on everything.

The score was breathtaking...really enjoyed it.

Amy Adams is amazing... Great performance.

mdc3000

Nope, same ending (they might have trimmed the voice over but I honestly think it was the exact same...however TIFF was 2 months ago, so a chance I'm not remembering correctly).

inri222

Thought it was better than the films that it is being compared to (Contact & CE3K). Reminded me a bit of one of my favorites - Tarkovsky's Solaris because of its themes of humanity and the pacing. It also had elements of Malick and there's an homage Enemy. Denis Villeneuve hits it out of the park again by giving us one of the best films of the year.

4.5/5

Ash Ketchum

When they were trying to decipher the alien scrawls I kept hoping someone would blurt out, "It's a cookbook!"

At a certain point, the film lost me and never got me back. I never understood the translation process or how they got as far as they did. Nor did I understand that whole time loop thing with flashbacks that were actually something else. It's TREE OF LIFE crossed with INTERSTELLAR; not a good thing, if you ask me.

It didn't help that they ran a trailer for COLLATERAL BEAUTY, Will Smith's latest holiday tearjerker, which comes with enough treacle to keep me away from theaters till long after Christmas has passed. Did this one escape from the Hallmark Channel?

Ky-Fi

Saw this yesterday and enjoyed it. A little slow, but it's a thoughtful movie with some good performances--I thought Amy Adams was fine. I liked the way the aliens were depicted.

Probably not much replay value for me, but I'd give it a thumbs up.

While I enjoy sci-fi action and Star Wars space opera stuff, I do also appreciate some deeper ideas in hard sci-fi, and I thought it was a pretty cool idea that...



some cons:



-and yes, like Ash, I also thought they kind of rushed the part where Adams deciphered the language enough to be able to communicate with them. I think I can forgive that, though, as it was kind of slow movie anyways, it didn't need to be drawn out more.

On a side note, I appreciated the makeup work on Amy Adams. She's a very attractive woman, but she wasn't made up to look like some supermodel Hollywood star playing a "scientist". She just looked like a normal woman you'd see in real life.

DJariya

Caught a matinee today. Not sure what to make of it.

Beautifully shot movie and some spectacular scene with the space crafts and the aliens. And Amy Adams is one of the most naturally beautiful women in film.

But, in the end, I'm not really sure what the point of it was. I was surprised that the movie was told from a non-linear perspective. Thought the baby/daughter scenes was events prior to the invasion.

This felt like a mixture of Close Encounters of the 3rd Kind and the life/death movie "My Life" that starred Michael Keaton years ago. I'm guessing the aliens helped Louise figure out her destiny even though it ends in tragedy and she is going forward living her life as it was foretold to her. I honestly didn't think the scene with the Chinese President telling Louise his wife's dying words in her ear and then using that to stop the attack in the present was as clever as they intended it to be. A colleague from work told me a completely interpretation of them. He assumed there were 2 daughters and I didn't get that at all.

Funny how some of you mention that you were bored to tears in the 1st hour or so. I was sitting next to a woman who came with her husband and son. She was out cold for at least 30 minutes of the movie in the 1st hour.

I'd give it 3 1/2 stars mainly for the visuals, Adams and the directing. But, I can't see myself re-visiting this.

Osiris3657

Well, that was alright. Solid even. I enjoyed it, but I felt the story could have been more exciting (and I don't mean action sequences). I liked it more than Interstellar.

Also dug the soundtrack, that stood out to me.

Glad I saw it, but not sure I'll see it again.

asianxcore

Saw this a few days ago. I loved it but that ending was pretty lame.

devilshalo

Saw it again last night and now... I find that the aliens are self-serving assholes, this is their version of Star Trek IV and we're the whales.

And I also found it weird that Louise was accepting of her predestination and didn't look to try and fix that.

Amy Adams looks amazing in person. And Villeneuve is very soft spoken.

mdc3000

Isn't that part of the main point of the movie - she could 'fix it' but she would miss out on those small but meaningful moments with her daughter - she judged that even though there was devastating pain and grief ahead, she wouldn't 'fix it' because she didn't want to miss out on those moments that she would have. She chooses in that final moment to go ahead with the predestination rather than try to course correct or something.

devilshalo

She has what.. 15 years at least to deal with knowledge of the rare disease her daughter gets. She and Ian can't have that conversation prior to that? Did she not want to come off looking crazy talking about her ability to see her own future so she said nothing until her kid is 10 or so and Ian leaves her? If you knew your own child's mortality, wouldn't you want to live differently than to just wait for the inevitable?

GreenMonkey

Saw this tonight (thanks to T-Mobile Tuesdays $2 ticket).

First reaction is how much I liked it. I haven't seen a movie that resonates with me this much since maybe Twelve Monkeys or maybe Primer (although that was a headscratcher that took two viewings before it really sunk in).

Or even more of what comes to mind is Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.

I love me some time travel (or time travelish) movies.

Fantastic movie.

RichC2

Watched this earlier and really liked it

Especially loved the first act, Villeneuve is fantastic at doing the "this is what it feels like to be in their shoes", gives everything a fantastic sense of discovery.

On a side note, I read this article with a linguist basically reviewing the movie and giving notes on how this is basically the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis fully enacted (which is a somewhat silly theory about learning ones language gives you the view of their world). It's a good read.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/..._language.html

Definitely would have wanted a back-up kid, just in case.

Why So Blu?

Watched this tonight and thought it was fantastic and one of the best films I did not get to see on the big screen n 2016.

TomOpus

Too bad you didn't catch it in theaters. These types of movies scream "theater" to me.

inri222

Good, now can you please remove Gods of Egypt from your top 10 list.

story

My spouse and I both had Monday off by with different schedules so she caught a matinee at a cheap seats second run theater and loved it, said she'd even go again with me if we can find the time.

I read the linguist article (and the DVDTalk review but not the rest of this thread) and the spoilers are mild enough in it that I could find it interesting without ruining the movie as far as I know.

dex14