“Why are they here?” – That’s the question in Denis Villeneuve’s newest film Arrival, based on a short story by Ted Chiang. Today two trailers for the film were released, the one above this paragraph is the regular official trailer, but in this recap I’ll also be discussing the international trailer, which can be found here.
First, let’s look at the official synopsis, to find out what exactly we are dealing with here:
When mysterious spacecrafts touch down across the globe, an elite team – lead by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) – 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.
Let’s now move on to some of the revealing shots from the trailers.
Here we have one of their UFOs. This shot looks like something from Prometheus.
Okay, so Dr. Banks finds out about at their arrival during a lecture, which very few people attend?
“A proper introduction.” – Here we have our aliens.
It looks like the red spots are where the UFOs have landed. Very interesting. From the trailers, it looks like the various countries won’t get along very well. Some countries will probably go against Banks’s wishes.
Here we have representatives of the territories that have UFOs within their borders. Do note that Denmark is listed here, but there is no red spot on Denmark in the other picture. The Danish representative is speaking for Greenland, seeing as Greenland is within the Danish Realm.
I’m guessing this is where communication and cooperation stops?
Okay, so I really like these two trailers. I’m excited for the film, and I’ve been excited for it for a while due to the director. One thing I am a bit worried about is that both trailers focus on cooperation, communication, understanding, and translation.
Now, I’m not trying to say that I don’t want the film to focus on that. That’s pretty much what I’m expecting from, like, 80-85% of the film. But these are trailers, and I’m worried people won’t be excited about a film where a linguist has to translate alien language.
But who knows? Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe everyone wants to watch this film. I hope I am wrong, because I want science fiction stories – like this one – to do well. I’ll pretty much watch anything Denis Villeneuve directs, and hopefully he becomes a household name sooner rather than later.
What did you think of the trailers? Sound off in the comments.
– Jeffrey Rex
