Review of The Arrival (1996) by Green P — 01 Jan 2008

The initial plot of "The Arrival" is almost identical to the film version of Carl Sagan's "Contact" (starring Jodie Foster), where an underfunded SETI project gets the chop just as a major radio signal comes through. But here the plot of "Arrival" takes a different turn to that of "Contact" and moves into an equally unoriginal "conspiracy theory" mode, where aliens with a sinister agenda are arriving incognito and the protagonist, Zane, is left not knowing who in the government to trust and trying to get the message of the "truth" of his discovery out to the world.

There are a number of silly occurences that crop up from time to time. For example, despite Zane's paranoia he decides to confide in a teenager who he catches breaking itno his house one night. This turns out to be necessary for later, but it's distinctly less plauable even than aliens invading ...

Nevertheless it's an enjoyable watch although fans of sci-fi will have seen most of the content in the guise of many films and shorts before (see the Outer Limits "Aliens Amongst Us" for one of many examples).