With "Arrival," director Denis Villeneuve takes a very familiar alien invasion scenario and tries to put a new twist on it. While everyone from H. G. Wells in "War of the Worlds" to Roland Emmerich in "Independence Day" has envisioned a swarm of spacecraft attacking us, Villeneuve imagines what would happen if the aliens landed and just chilled. How would humanity respond? With fear, suspicion and weapons? Or with an attempt at communication and understanding?