A Invasão

I was a late getting to the theater to see 'The Arrival'. Then I had to go through the concession stand crowd. When I finally reached the theater -the screen was engrossed by a huge satellite disk and there was some guy talking. "Damn," I thought. "I just missed the start of the movie." It wasn't three seconds after that realization that I had another one. "This isn't the movie." It was a commercial for one of the large multi-billion dollar phone companies. Talk about false scares.

Some people have called 'The Arrival' a thinking man's science fiction movie. While the jury is still out on that, I will say it's not stupid either. It is however one more of those 'one man saves the world' flicks. Which are never terribly realistic, but on their own terms, entertain. Charlie Sheen plays Zane Zaminski. A smart, but soon-to-be paranoid astrophysicist who has the slithery Godian (Ron Silver) for a boss. One day watching the satellites some anomaly passes his screen. Suddenly the search is on. What was it? WHO was it? Not letting the subject go gets him fired from his job and deeper and deeper he journeys into the paranoia.

The Arrival is one part use your mind, two parts conspiracy theory. As Zane takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of things and find out who's involved and to what lengths they'll go to suppress everything. Soon we start to see elements straight out of the X Files. The story has it's own set of implausibilities, but things move at such a pace that there isn't much time to question them. Zane knows something is going on and the deeper he digs the more we find out. It's all about the ride. Could one man really stop such things from happening? Probably not, but that doesn't stop 'The Arrival' from being a fun time.

Thrilling film about mysterious events spread across the planet , being compellingly directed by nice filmmaker David Twohy . This is a mix of thrills , action , adventure , intrigue and extraterrestrial invasion of world doom and gloom ; add to that a really magnificent cast . The greatest danger facing our world has been the planet's best kept secret...until now . Zane (Charlie Sheen), an astronomer discovers intelligent alien life , as he picks up strange signals from outer space . Eerily soon after his discovery , Zane is fired by his boss (Ron Silver) . As strange sudden incidents altering life of an astronomer , leaving them stranded with no line of communication on a location in Mexico . But the aliens are keeping a deadly secret , and will do anything to stop Zane and his fiancée (Teri Polo) from learning it . Zane gathers evidence to support this theory but there are several enemies go after him .

This is a science fiction thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat . Exciting film packs intrigue , intense scenes , noisy action and astonishing suspense . The picture follows the wake of the 8os and 90s in ¨X file¨ style and invasion mania . Passable acting by Charlie Sheen as a radio astronomer who receives signal from a far planet , and gorgeous Teri Polo as his girlfriend . Enjoyable support cast , such as Richard Schiff as his best friend and assistant , Ron Silver as a nasty chief , Lindsay Crouse as a curious scientific , Leon Rippy as a hoodlum , among others . Appropriate and suspenseful musical score by Arthur Kempel . Atmospheric and colorful cinematography by Hiro Narita .

The motion picture was well written and directed by David Twohy . David is an expert writer and director of splendid Sci-Fi movies . As his first picture was the acceptable ¨Timescape¨ . He also wrote ¨Warlock¨, ¨Waterworld ¨, a script for ¨Alien 3¨ in 1988, but it was rejected . Back in May of 2000, Fox Studios once inquired for his availability to write and direct "AVP: Alien vs. Predator" , but turned down the offer due to scheduling conflicts . David subsequently directed ¨Below¨, the successful ¨Pich Black¨ and its sequel ¨ The chronicles of Riddick¨ .

I had the pleasure of watching this film in the theater and to be quite honest that is the way it should be seen. Its a well done movie about aliens visiting earth, overall the story is nothing original (but it does have more then a few tricks up its sleeve) and is your typical Alien invader movie.

Watching this on television years later its hard to appreciate just how well this film was shot. One scene in particular involving a large dish and someone almost falling off the side of it almost caused me to make a mess in my pants when first watching the film on the big screen.

When I saw it the theater was mostly empty (not good for the movie, but it probably allowed us to enjoy it some more) and it was its first run (did it have a second?). Its sad the film didn't do as well as it should have, at the time it was the best alien related movie in theaters (I seem to remember independence day being out at the same time).

My one gripe is a somewhat weak ending (especially considering the strength of the rest of the movie). Overall it is an entertaining and somewhat thought provoking film that you won't regret watching unless you don't like movies that emphasize suspense instead of action. And there is a LOT of suspense in this film. It doesn't skimp on action either but it saves it for the end of the movie where it belongs and makes some sense.

Some people may not like its message either but I didn't have a problem with it and it certainly didn't get overly preachy. People voice their opinions on screen just as someone would do in real life, and I don't have a problem with that. The real focus of the movie is aliens, not the environment. If you fixate on the environmental message in the movie then you probably have some issues or just don't get this type of movie. Global warming is more of a subplot that leads Mr Sheen in a certain direction and nothing more.

The special effects are fairly spartan but effective and nicely creepy when they are used.

Some of the characters are kind of annoying but are necessary, and don't detract from the film overall.

A worthwhile rental, especially if you have a large TV to watch it on.

At least "The Arrival" doesn't fall into the car chases and gratuitous explosions category of sci-fi. It has some semblance of scientific reason, and some pretty original ideas. The vortex balls were an intriguing touch, and the gigantic satellite dish scenes quite effective. It is necessary to suspend disbelief on several occasions, but overall the film succeeds as entertainment. Having the kid along seemed like kind of a stretch as well. If you can look past the faults in logic, "The Arrival" is totally acceptable. If you are going to tear it apart for every little thing, then I suggest you look elsewhere. - MERK

It's not often you can say a Charlie Sheen release is ahead of the curve but this movie, which deals in satellite dishes pointing at space, alien invasion, and conspiracy, was a year before the likes of Contact and Men in Black. It even beat Independence Day to the theatres by about a month. It of course didn't become as successful as any of those movies but, it has some smart ideas which play out well. It has the look and feel of an X-Files episode with a huge budget and really wouldn't feel out of place within the universe of Mulder and Scully. Sure, the special effects look very 90's now, and the story perhaps could use a little work. Sheen, however, puts in a strong performance in what was one of his final big-screen outings before descending into straight to video releases. A sequel appeared a couple of years later without Sheen and his character killed off, It's a shame because this could have become a series of movies, all with Charlie onboard, had things just gone a little differently.