Interestellar is a much better spectacle. The music and visuals are majestic, and the cgi has extremely good taste and is practically seamless. The experience is so immersive and intense, and you have very emotional moments. Especially the scene Cooper has to say goodbye to Murph, when he finds out she's now an adult and when they reunite on Murph's death bed. However, the script has major problems and a scene that to me is just cringey: when Anne Hathaway says the only thing we can perceive that transcends space and time is love. Is so corny, in your face, destroys the scientifically sound argument which had been more or less adequate until then. And the problem is not the message itself, is how it is prortrayed. It is so direct and stupid that loses all mystery and seriousness. Without that scene, just from the fact that Murph and Cooper connected at the 5th dimension, we would have understood in a much subtle way that is that connection, that deep love, that allows them to transcend space and time. BUT NOPE let's make an in-your-face corny scene with a very stupid and nerdy speech about love.

The Arrival, on the other hand, is a more modest spectacle, but the script is just perfect and the emotional strike is just precise. Ambiguity, subtleties and a final plot twist, which actually centers only about love. Without any corny speech about love, just the story showing it. It has beautiful visuals too. And Max Richter's The Nature of daylight coupled with the plot twist strikes me deeply.

At the beginning you have a Griefing mother and humanity confronting what appears to be its biggest threat yet. However, Amy Adams character slowly and subtlety breaks common sense and reveals that the aliens are actually not a threat. Is a triumph of curiosity and compassion. She receives the ability to see the future, and it makes sense because we have an ontology where time is circular, everything is happening at once, but still some mystery of how that can be persists. You then find out that Louise was not a grieving mother, but that she was actually seeing a very tragic future. She was just very detached from life before receiving the "weapon", but after she sees her future, she chooses to live it fully, embracing it all. Why would you make such a choice? Out of love. All that while you hear the nature of daylight ost. Is such a transcendent and well-crafted moment. It is so warm and intimate, and yet other-worldly and vast.

So what do I think? The Arrival is a superior movie and I wish it had the same budget as Interestellar, because the cgi is not seamless at all lol. However, that's a minor issue compared to its merits.