The Arrival

The Arrival fulfills one of the classic functions of science fiction, which is to take a current trend and extend it to a possible (and preferably alarming) future. The Arrival gives its aliens credit for reasoning that we might almost be tempted to agree with. We're just finishing what you started, one of the aliens tells Zane, referring to the smokestacks, auto exhausts, rain forests and so on. What would have taken you 100 years will only take us 10. He, or it, has a point.

As a head-trip movie with a moral, The Arrival engages the mind almost as much as it messes with it. [31 May 1996, p.F]

A wonderful slice of pulp alien-invasion sci-fi with a dash of conspiracy thriller tossed in for good measure. It plays as a clever X-Files knockoff and as a funny camp classic all at the same time. Low budget sci-fi pictures like these are rarely this entertaining, or good for that matter.

No masterpiece, but a decent rental prospect. Twohy works the Sci-fi genre well yet again.

The plot, dealing with aliens infiltrating our world, still made as much sense as it possibly could, and the special effects guys really don't go to work until the last two reels. [31 May 1996, p.8]

A few of the sequences are bad enough to be funny, especially the ones involving Sheen skulking around alien central in a red jump suit, falling down a lot, as if directed by Ed Wood. [31 May 1996, p.52]

The Arrival looks and feels awfully small and cheap. In that way, the movie does feel like those science-fiction classics of the ’50s. But back then, sweaty heroes didn’t utter lines of ’90s dialogue like ”I look like a can of smashed a–holes.”

I have always really liked this movie. The plot and the pacing are good. That being said, it's not going to blow you away. It's just not a prestige film. It's just good enough to be a lot of fun.

An entertaining science fiction movie with elements resembling the X-Files. Zane Zamisky played by Charlie Sheen is an astronomer who works for the SETI project (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). He hit the jackpot when he discovered a signal that could be prove that intelligent alien lifeforms exist. To his surprise his discoveries are dismissed and he is shortly after fired as results of budget cuts. Because this all makes not much sense to him he starts an investigation. The more he discovered the stranger it gets. The story is clearly inspired by the X-Files and it is not a bad thing. It is always clear what they want and there are no mistakes in the story and directing. The twist improve the atmosphere of the movie. The actors and especially Charlie Sheen deliver a good performance. I think there is not much more to talk about. Overall this while being no masterpiece is an enjoyable and well crafted movie. They know what they want to do and archived it. Bonus knowledge: There are many theories while we found no signs of alien life. The base assumption is that the universe is incredible big and old. So there have to be countless other civilizations even at very small odds. There are many theories like “The Dark Forest” (They hide because there could be other civilizations that are destroying each other civilization they could find), “The Great Filter” (There is some obstacle civilizations rarely survive or cant survive) or that the universe was not suited for life earlier on (Gamma ray burst wiping out all life in proximity).

Just watched The Arrival last night. This is a solid film, especially for the mid 90s. Sheen is pretty gripping as the main character, and the movie keeps moving along at a brisk pace, changing locations to keep things interesting and really building towards the climax as we go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. My wife is much less of a sci-fi nerd than me and she enjoyed it as well, for what its worth. Intriguing film; I recommend it.

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]