By Travis Johnson
At first taste it’s reminiscent of Sphere, the 1998 Barry Levinson-directed Michael Crichton adaptation starring Dustin Hoffman and Samuel L. Jackson. the broad strokes are the same: following the discovery of an object of presumably inhuman origin, a team of scientists are assembled to make contact with whatever’s inside it. There’s surely more to to than that, though; after all, the director here is Denis Villeneuve, who impressed us all hugely with Prisoners and Sicario before being handed the keys to the neon-slicked Blade Runner kingdom by Ridley Scott. Expectations are high.
The official synopsis:
When mysterious spacecraft touch down across the globe, an elite team – led by expert linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams) – are 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.
Starring Amy Adams, Jeremy Renner, Forest Whitaker and Michael Stuhlbarg, Arrival touches down in Australian cinemas on November 10.
