spoilers ahead I felt like the character conflict arcs were contrived and ultimately the idea of learning a language makes you a pre-cog fell flat for me. In science fiction, the big idea goes ‘woo!’ or the characters go ‘woo!’ but in the case of Arrival, nothing really went ‘woo!’
But maybe I’m wrong - what was I missing about Arrival?
Does the best mean you need to appeal to a very large audience?
For me best & most popular are two very different concepts. By your metric, modern pop music is obviously the best music?
It’s an interesting question, and part of what makes it interesting is the historical rating we give to things. e.g. operas & classical music from 300 years ago have stood the test of time in a really shockingly impressive manner. Most of modern pop music will be forgotten completely in 50 years just as we’ve forgotten the majority of what music was popular 50 years ago.
So maybe instead you can ask:
And the thing is, for Arrival, I think the answer is no…it would be too boring and perhaps a bit too confusing. But within its niche absolutely the answer to (probably both) questions is yes.
Also, I’ve now remembered. My favorite scifi movie of the century is probably Primer.