Arrival II

The Arrival was, in my humble opinion, a great movie. I really really liked it - the acting, the story, the effects, the message ... a wonderful movie. So of course when I heard about the Second Arrival, I immediately got it on video. Big mistake. I never should've watched the movie. It disappointed me very much. It had *nothing* from the original movie. The acting was, to say the least, pathetic. The story was even worse. They took elements from the first movie and totally ruined them. The message was gone, too. The aliens, which were fascinating in the first movie, were nothing but boring bad guys. And claiming that Zane Zaminski had died was totally ridiculous. Everything was so unfitting that it makes you wonder if the creators of the second movie had actually watched The Arrival or just been told about it by an old friend. Everything about this movie was horrible. I don't understand why this movie was made; it has no point. I suggest you stay away from it if you liked The Arrival.

After watching the first one you would think that OK maybe it wont be as good but it might be almost as good?

Nope! This film should be enough to ruin the carriers of everyone involved. A teenager could have and would have written a better script. A first year cinema student would have done a better job at filming.

Don't waste your time. This film is not even in the "so bad it's good" cult of film buffs. Utter trash.

I liked "The Arrival," but this is a weak sequel. Lead actor Charlie Sheen is gone from the first movie and all that's left, except for Michael Sarrazin, are no-name actors. Actually, Sarrazin hasn't been seen much of in recent years, either.

The movie does have some decent special effects and good good suspense, both of which make it fairly interesting and fast-moving. The problem is weak dialog and generally unlikeable characters, the worst being the obnoxious reporter played by Jane Sibbett. She was just downright annoying, ruining some of the enjoyment of watching this. Patrick Muldoon's character is a bit too sleazy, too. Cahterine Blythe was involved in some gratuitous sex scene, which accounts for the "R" rating.

For people who liked "The Arrival," many of them (me included) got stuck with this one added to that on the double-featured DVD.

This time around Zane's Canadian step-brother--who's a wizard of a computer geek underneath that '80s looking hairdo--must pick up the pieces from where his distant, paranoid relative left off in a similar DIY investigative fashion for, that's right, humanity's sake. Except he's laid back, shows late for work and would rather run from a situation than get his hands dirty, especially about theories concerning covert extraterrestials. Yeah, those guys...and now gals.

The pacing is along the lines of a made-for-TV mystery with a few thrills to grease the wheels. Production expenses are tighter, so in turn, there are a number of scenes that are overdrawn. The acting isn't expected to be award winning but with the flow being at slower speeds than its predecessor, it makes what comes out of their mouths forced and far from giving the believable sense of actually being there in this state of looming danger. Not to mention the one-dimensional villains that are just shy of being animated over and turned into cartoon characters.

The first film, while not mind-blowing, was fresher with ideas. "The Arrival 2" retreads similar mechanics and the story meddles on with superficial attempts to personalize the experience with little quips, along with token love interests and by-now dated gizmos. Overall, this feels straightforward, anticlimactic and, aside from a few redeeming qualities to keep it afloat, a waste of a sequel.

I am not sure which part of this movie was the most poorly done - the acting or the script. The acting was very superficial. I got the idea they took the first cut for a number of the scenes - unfortunately these were the ones the co-stars had to carry all by themselves - without special effects. I didn't believe a word or care about these people. Nor did I believe that the characters were experiencing what they portrayed. The script was even worse. Even if the acting was good I wouldn't believe the story. These characters made incredible jumps in logic. They could figure things out at the first look. Any computer programmer that was as good as "Jack" would never think their brother got the brains.

Even with the flaws it wasn't a total waste of time. It was another chapter in an ongoing story - not the second novel in a trilogy - just a few chapters. It should have been a TV series episode. And the special effects were nice in some places. I can see why this movie went right to cable and skipped the theaters.