Director: Kevin Tenney Writer: Mark David Perry Cast: Patrick Muldoon, Michael Sarrazin, Jane Sibbett, Catherine Blythe, Michael Scherer
This was supposed to continue the story left hanging in The Arrival after Charlie Sheen blew up the radio antenna. Mostly what it does is put you to sleep.
For those who missed that first episode, Sheen played SETI scientist Zane Ziminski, who intercepted a radio signal that could only have come from some sentient extraterrestrial source. The bad news was that it was a follow-up signal - the aliens were here and in the process of adapting Earth's ecology to their own needs. Global warming and the hole in the ozone layer aren't caused by pollution. It's E.T.'s idea of climate control.
In this bit of badly written, incompetently directed and ineptly performed drivel, Ziminski has contacted a group of people two months after the aforementioned antenna demolition to enlist them in his good fight. Among the contactees are computer geek Jack Addison (Muldoon), university professor Nelson Zacoli (Michael Sarrazin, briefly) and eager-beaver newspaper reporter Bridget Riordan (Jane Sibbett). Who the others are and why Ziminski selected them is kept a secret. All we ever know is that one of them turns out to be an alien who tries to send the rest into wherever using a quantum singularity grenade made famous in episode one.
Addison, Zacoli and Riordan manage to escape from the meatlocker (the aliens are susceptible to cold, so hanging out in the fridge is supposed to keep them away) and agree to meet later to compare notes. That's when we find out Zacoli only got away so the F/X guys could show us their new toy - a robot spider that's a walking hypodermic needle. Exit Zacoli.
The rest of the movie is an alternating series of chase scenes and mind numbing moments during which Jack whines about actually having to work at something. He and Bridget learn that the aliens have been buying up nuclear power plants, intending to cause core meltdowns in strategic locations to move up their timetable. They have to prevent the first meltdown as a delaying tactic. Or something like that.
This silly symphony of alien-invasion clichés is a sad letdown from its predecessor. The Arrival stepped outside run-of-the-mill because Charlie Sheen's Zane Ziminski was such a quintessential good guy, willing to do whatever he had to find out the truth. It had a gentle humor about it that left you cheering for our side. Muldoon's Jack Addison, on the other hand, is a whiny narcissist whose attempts at humor fall flatter than his emotional repertoire. He first beds, then flees from Catherine Blythe's alien lizard-lady Sandra Wolfe, a villain stolen wholly from V's Diana. When Jack and Bridget aren't exchanging long meaningful looks, they're running, the plotline apparently only intended to tie together the special effects.
