So how did the redhaired chick learn their language? - Arrival (2016) Discussion

[–] techiebug 7 years ago

She collected and built up the Alien vocabulary. She used the tablet to convert these words to the aliens. She never fully understand the language until she "sees" her future work on the language.

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[–] bobby_nynex 7 years ago

what a cop-out. atleast with Contact there was a reasoning to reading their scripture.

https://youtu.be/93sGUFpVxFI

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[–] thebricks 7 years ago

It's a screenplay, she learned it, just because. Don't think too hard about it.

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[–] chillpillory 7 years ago

No. That's wrong. The ONLY interesting thing about the film is her acquisition of their language. No other part of the film is interesting, aside from the way the aliens control gravity. There's no character development. Either the linguistic issue carries the film or the film doesn't work.

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[–] Ambianwinediet 7 years ago

yaa the first half is all about linguistics, and by extension deeper themes like communication, how we communicate, and understanding between two people (beings)

this was interesting..

then after that dumb exposition by renner, which bascically says "adams character was smarter than everyone so she figured out the language, dont question how"

it immediately switches to totally different themes about how we percieve time, life, extistentialism, life being a journey, not a destination etc"

its literally two movies in one, with neither half effectively portraying its themes fully because it seems to of got lazy..

its a poor film. that thinks it is deeper than it is.

but hey if you didnt like it, "you just didnt get it" according to the fanbots...

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[–] The_Foxcatcher 7 years ago

How do u go from learning their "names" into learning their words. i feel like the movie skipped a few sequences there.

Just Out of the blue!

The film-makers didn't care to get into that because of lack of creative thinking. A horrible cop-out it is indeed.

The movie Contact showed the whole process of deciphering the alien message, step by step, one clue led to other and then another, which made the movie intriguing and truly intelligent.

Arrival is a bland emotional gimmickry with fairy tale fantasy rules like one can foresee his/her future by interpreting the Alien language! A disgrace!

Retard... Pussy... Sinister_prig

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[–] Ambianwinediet 7 years ago

yaa 100% agree.

its a film that thinks it is deep. When it began i thought it would be an interesting of how she learns it. and i was genuinly interested.

instead we get this clunky exposition by Renner literally at the halfway mark,that simply says "she was the smartest, way ahead of the rest of us, with the pakistani's help we managed to figure out blah blah blah""

Then it totally switches gears with the bombing and threat of various country's to blow them up..

agreed none of the characters really had any developed. adams started off as a linguist interested in language (which isnt even a trait, its a job, the shallowest for of "character traits") and ended as a linguist who for some reason could see the future because... learning a language that used no reference of time makes you have superhuman powers......

most overrated movies of the year.

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[–] kurppanoori 7 years ago

Or maybe you just didn't understand it. This movie really was way more intelligent, and the real point was in the fourth dimension, as in the concept of time - what is time? And no, it's not "seconds, minutes and hours, you know, a clock".

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[–] Ambianwinediet 7 years ago

we get it..... no one was confused....

its a movie trying to be super deep that fails...

its clearly two films merged into one.. the first part deals with communication and talking over fighting.

the second part ignores this and goes full blown retard...

also "deepness" is not an excuse for non sense in the narrative and logic....

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[–] kurppanoori 7 years ago

If you are not confused, then you didn't get it. :D That was kind of the point: it was about things we really can't understand that well (time).

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[–] zumannaruto 7 years ago

Movie had no points.It falied the most basic things.It's dumb and so are the people who delude themselves it is more than pile of trash

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[–] thebricks 7 years ago

I feel sorry for the people who took that part of the movie so seriously. They just made up how she learned their language, and made the aliens as strange and abstract as possible, just so there wouldn't be any backlash against the design of them.

Also, having the aliens come back in 3,000 years was another script writing copout. This was truly terrible stuff.

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[–] VinAnimous 7 years ago

What part of learning languages gives you the ability to see the future that you don't understand? Seems straightforward!

You are my wife now!

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[–] kurppanoori 7 years ago

Don't take it so literally. Or do you also question how Gandalf's beam of light can banish dragons? The aliens talked about a gift the whole time, maybe the aliens gave her the ability, as is implied? They are aliens, who are you to say they couldn't posses such abilities?

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[–] Ambianwinediet 7 years ago

tom clancy said "the difference between fiction and real life is fiction has to make sense"

its literally basic storytelling, whether you write a book, direct a movie or make a game.

the internal logic of the universe you create, has to consistent and make sense,..

so for example afflecks character in the accountant was a badass strong fighter. but had he all of a sudden run up a 4 story wall we would of said "wtf?". yet when the same happens in the matrix, it is CONSISTENT

its actually pathetic i have to explain this to you........this is like basics first year university stuff.....

Don't take it so literally. Or do you also question how Gandalf's beam of light can banish dragons? T

its internally logical and consistent in the LOTR that wizards can cast spells... it makes sense....

The aliens talked about a gift the whole time, maybe the aliens gave her the ability, as is implied?

the aliens talked about a gift. then adams character even says something along the lines of the language being the gift all along. and then we find out the language can.........drumroll........let you see things non linearly and over different time periods... why? because the structure of the language doesnt use time therefore.. anyone who learns it are all of a sudden percieves time differently.. what a joke...

there is no internal logic.. no constancy..

it began as a film with themes about language and communication.. half way through we get that ridiculous exposition, and it turns to one about time and life and life being not a destination, but a journey.........

They are aliens, who are you to say they couldn't posses such abilities?

AGAIN... internal logic you simpleton.......... so they dont percieve time how we do linearly, so that means they could of seen how to teach humans immediately how to learn their language.... yet didnt.. they are massively advanced, to the point they can travel long distances and see in the future how the encounters would of went, yet didnt develop a way to teach the humans their language... which they would of already been able to see all pla out through flash forwards...

the logic here is convoluted, contradictory and nonsensical..

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[–] kurppanoori 7 years ago

yet didnt develop a way to teach the humans their language

Yet, they did. It was shown in the movie. They are technologically more advanced than us, so their language is much more advanced than ours. They couldn't teach it like we teach a child to talk English.

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[–] bronx157 7 years ago

(Ian Donnelly) gave'em the names Albert & Costello.

I'm guessing you mean how she learned their Language?

I really don't know, but it had to be a gift from the aliens, because she kept dreaming parts about her future which in that case she already knew and wrote a book about it, she was confused and just trying to understand her visions.

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[–] fede_4488 7 years ago

i feel like the movie skipped a few sequences there.

Wasn't the movie boring enough already?! 

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[–] RickSPI (3) 7 years ago

there were months, maybe a year, between her learning their names and putting together the 'app' where she could make sentences ... the narration explains that.

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[–] mudsharkbytes (165) 7 years ago

I have to say I agree with this criticism. I was interested in seeing how Dr. Banks was going to figure out how to decipher their language since she had nothing tangible to work with other than two almost octopoid-like blobs squirming around on the other side of a divide.

For instance, in one scene she points out the use of the symbol for "time" is used frequently. How on earth can any linguist glean the concept of "time" from blobby cephalopods, much less associate it with an inky character? I was keenly interested in seeing how all this was discovered. The ham-handed narrative passage I got instead was a disappointing cop-out.

I liked the movie enough to come here and see what others thought of it (since IMDB decided they no longer cared to support message boards) so I liked it well enough, I just thought this part of it was a disappointment.

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[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

I'm really surprised by the overwhelming hatred of this film. I loved it. I prefer it over Interstellar and Inception, I find these 2 a bit convoluted and too tv-ish episode of the week scifi.

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[–] Nostromo (212) 7 years ago

Agree entirely. It was far batter than Interstellar. The concept of Arrival is mind blowing.

I think it is fair enough if you didn't like the film. But I believe so many people are too lazy to look into it's deeper meanings (E.g: peace, communication, death) and instead feel the need to vent because they didn't get Aliens blowing up planet earth.

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[–] vicky_lc2001 (1907) 7 years ago

Maybe if I didn't grow up watching Star Trek, I would've appreciated Interstellar and Inception. But I've seen those concepts done repeatedly on shows like Star Trek for it to sweep me off my feet. Arrival's concept of language being linked to time is very original to me, something I have never seen before.

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