Alien civilisations, for simple reason of being alien, might have morality completely different than our own and for them annihilation of humanity might not be such a bad thing. Even "politically correct" Hollywood accepted this, and in mid 1990s this resulted in alien invasion films, best known of them being Independence Day. Roughly in the same time with 1996 spectacle, David Twohy directed The Arrival, science fiction thriller using the same concept.
The protagonist of the film is Zane Zaminski (played by Charlie Sheen), government employed radio-astronomer who has just discovered signals proving existence of alien civilisations. He immediately reports his findings to his boss Phil Gordian (played by Ron Silver) only to be unpleasantly surprised by being fired and having proof of his discovery destroyed. Zaminski doesn't give up and uses his new job of satellite television technician to create radio-telescope of his own. He discovers not only alien civilisations signals but also someone communicating with aliens from Mexico. He travels there to investigate and meets Ilana Green (played by Lindsay Crouse), scientist who had recently discovered huge increase in global temperatures - a phenomenon that can't be explained by industrial pollution or natural causes.
The Arrival was made with budget significantly lower to Independence Day, but the lack of visual splendour or huge cast was compensated with a David Twohy's script, incredibly intelligent for 1990s Hollywood standards. Whole alien invasion plot is presented as low-key affair, a perfidious plan that could be noticed only by the most brightest and perceptive of all humans. This allowed Twohy to create atmosphere of anxiety, fear and paranoia by showing the events from the protagonist's perspective and allowing the audience to build the disturbing images in their heads. Another reason why the plot, despite some of logical flaws, works is in its major element being borrowed from the real life newspaper headlines - global warming. The pace of the film is deliberately slow in the beginning, but it all pays off in the second half of the film when action elements come as more natural elements of the plot. The special effects are also very good. The acting is also quite good, although Charlie Sheen is at times hard to swallow as brilliant scientist; the scenes in which he has to be an ordinary man in extraordinary situations are much better. The Arrival has some problems with unnecessary subplot involving Zaminski's girlfriend and the ending is somewhat disappointing, but the general impression of this film is such that it represents a rare 1990s example of Hollywood taking science fiction seriously.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on June 4th 2003)
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