Review of The Arrival (1996) by Raphael G — 28 Mar 2011

Charlie Sheen's mission: Save the world from aliens. This conspiracy movie tries hard, but with a low budget and less than good performances, The Arrival doesn't stand close to what other movies like it had done.

An astronomer named Zane discovers a highly unusual signal from space that might just be mankind's first contact with intelegent life beyond Earth. But for some reason, his boss fires him, and men come and get rid of all his evidence. Now it's personal. Zane's search for the truth of this conspiracy leads him to a frightening secret. Alien contact movies where a big fad during this time, and where big Hollywood movies created classics, this lower budget and not-so-hot back then movie doesn't really add anything new, and definitely doesn't touch on what it could have done better. It's about average. Charlie Sheen stars as a pretty good lead, but he's the only character that matters. Other actors underperform and aren't all that great or interesting compared to Sheen.

David Twohy, the director of Pitch Black, Chronicles of Riddick, and A Perfect Getaway, directs one of his first movies. His experimental use of the camera is quite unique and well thought of, if at times it doesn't seem to make the movie any better. But his directing style made this movie better than it could have been too. This is by the way a low budget movie, so don't expect anything spectacular with CGI, and this movie does try to use animation. The animation is very, very dated, not impressive even for it's time. Though with a new and later to be cool director, The Arrival doesn't quite have that defining look that makes it different than any other conspiracy movie. The way the movie is paced, and the lighting and music, is less than impressive.

Though not a complete failure, because Charlie Sheen is always fun to watch, this sci-fi thriller isn't a classic and it takes quite a while before it becomes interesting. It's a good start for a new director, not a good example of a good alien movie.