Clocking in at just under two hours, Arrival is that rare film that you don’t want to miss even a moment of. You literally don’t want to blink or look at your phone in the fear of missing out something small, something important. It’s an intelligent film and that’s not a bad thing.

Don’t read anything more about it. The joy of discovery is beyond everything else.

Arrival’s most acute observation is how common language isn’t the only key to keep communication going, but the film appears to not notice it.

Ambitious, cerebral and profound, Arrival is a one-of- a-kind big-screen experience. The pulsating background music score by the Icelandic composer Johann Johannsson adds immensely to it, and the finale will leave you gasping in awe.

Amy Adams delivers a stellar performance with unspeakable grace and gravitas. This is a science fiction film that goes beyond extra-terrestrial conquests. It remains grounded on Earth and asks questions not only about humanity’s relation with itself, but also about humanity’s relation with the universe.

‘Arrival’ makes you ponder the implications of time, love, life, and death, and the co-relation between communication and the human experience long after the credits roll, making it one of the unmissable films to watch this year.

While the world stays busy over what’s better – DC or Marvel – and people cannot get more of the umpteenth Harry Potter or Jack Sparrow movie, Arrival, like Inception or Gravity, is the rare film that stands tall at the end of the year because of its sheer genius.

The first thing you’ll notice, of course, is how smart the film is. Unlike in movies like this year’s terrible Independence Day Resurgence there is a very real depiction of how the world would react if aliens did show up at our doorstep. It’s also nice to see characters that don’t make stupid decisions when things don’t go according to plan.

For far too long, Hollywood blockbusters have waged war against the extra terrestrial, using it as the perfect excuse to unite a fragmented world. Arrival challenges that notion and asks us to look within.

Arrival is an engaging experience. While the plot might raise many logical questions, it never lets its focus be diverted from the questions it wants you to ask. If not for anything else, this film is a must-watch at least for Amy Adams’ terrific performance.

This is undoubtedly Adam’s movie from start to finish, but if you’re counting on the film being carried only by the acting, then you’ve got the wrong idea. The film is nuanced and detailed and goes above and beyond what other science-fiction films have done. It has a revelation at the end that is both shocking and moving.