Arrival: 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
The Movie:
Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is an expert translator and when mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team races against time to decipher their intent. As tensions mount between fearful governments, Banks discovers the aliens’ true purpose and, to avert global war, takes a chance that could threaten her life, and quite possibly humanity.
Have you ever seen a movie that you weren’t sure if you liked at first? Arrival was one of those films for me. I went in expecting something to the degree of a high CG science fiction film but what was presented was a movie that made me “think”. I’m not opposed to a movie like that but I think it just initially threw me off to the point where after I watched it I didn’t know how to feel about it. After a day of thinking about this film I came to the conclusion that I really loved this film a whole lot. It’s plot does have to do with aliens but it presents the important message of communication. I feel like something like this is extremely relevant in these recent years and I hope that it doesn’t fly over peoples heads. Adams was amazing in the film and Jenner complimented her performance fantastically in a way that I hadn’t seen before. I feel like both actors really gave themselves to their roles wholeheartedly. Arrival is definitely one to watch but I do stress that you have to go into it with an open mind and to see it not for what’s on the surface but for what’s underneath. You’ll end up seeing this film in a brand new light and it’ll stick with you for a good while. 9/10
4K Presentation:
There’s very little difference between the 4K version and the 1080p version. There are things such as clarity and vibrancy during close ups where you can see obvious differences but nothing too major. I think that since this film was more story based than visually based it didn’t “wow” me in the way that bigger CG based movies have done in the past. At this point it’s really more of a personal preference on which version you want to get but both look really good.
Special Features:
Xenolinguistics: Understanding Arrival – A fantastic 30 minute feature that looks at the story, production design, casting and so much more.
Acoustic Signatures: The Sound Design – This feature takes a look at how the film uses sound and how beneficial it was to the story.
Eternal Recurrence: The Score – This features insight on the music of the film and how it compliments the story.
Nonlinear Thinking: The Editing Process – An interesting look at the unique editing of the film and how it enhanced the movie going experience.
Principles of Time, Memory, & Language – This focuses on certain story elements of the film and is probably the most interesting out of all the features.
