...different vibes between Interstellar & Arrival.

I was probably primed to like Arrival a little bit more, simply because I enjoyed the Chiang short story it was based on so much, and Arrival did a remarkable job of adapting it to the screen. I also thought The Martian was a great sci-fi movie from the last few years.

They're both pretty fantastic, though, and both are more plausible than your typical sci-fi western shoot 'up space opera.