الوافد

SF fans congratulated ourselves when seeing that, finally, somebody was paying attention to Ted Chiang's beautifully-crafted short fiction. 'Arrival' is based on his 'Stories of your life' but it is, ultimately, a sad distortion of what Chiang's story is about. Instead of an intimate tale and a mystery, we're given the typical militaristic story told 1,000 times. The screenwriter insists on explaining what needs no explanation and absurdly misses what the story really narrates. No wonder many spectators are confused, believing that the opening minutes are actually a flashback... So, please, do yourself a favor and read Chiang, forget this flat, conventional film as soon as you can. Except, that is, for the accomplished way in which the alien language is represented, the only saving grace of the film.