Dune 2 Isn’t Denis Villeneuve’s Best Sci-Fi Movie According To Rotten Tomatoes

What makes «Arrival» — which, like the «Dune» films, is an adaptation and is based on a short story by Ted Chiang titled «Story Of Your Life» — so special that it ousted «Dune: Part Two» for the top Rotten Tomatoes spot? «Arrival» might be a massive Best Picture nominee and a science-fiction movie about aliens communicating with planet Earth, but it’s also a deeply felt, moving story about a mother grieving the loss of her daughter.

After linguist Louise Banks (Amy Adams, who was, astonishly, not nominated for Best Actress that year) loses her daughter Hannah to a terminal illness, she’s asked for her help by the US Army after alien airships start trying to communicate with humans. Alongside a physicist named Ian Donnelly (Jeremy Renner), Louise is able to decipher the alien language, using whiteboards to communicate with them, but she starts having intense, overwhelming visions of Hannah any time she speaks with the aliens. Meanwhile, the Army grows suspicious of the aliens when Louise reports that they used a word that could mean «weapon,» though Louise insists that the aliens don’t mean harm.

The way that VDenis illeneuve intertwines Louise’s larger mission and her grief for her child is brilliant, and if you haven’t seen «Arrival,» we wouldn’t dare to spoil it here. Still, it’s not a huge surprise that it’s Villeneuve’s biggest sci-fi critical darling to date.