"The Arrival" was about the discovery of a secret alien invasion where the goal is to basically terraform the planet for colonization. This becomes the explanation of the sudden rise in global warming. These aliens, in addition to having weirdly jointed knees as their distinguishing characteristic in their normal form or when looking like humans, prefer the warm and hate the cold (hence, hiding among the Eskimos as a good idea), so they are trying to turn the Earth into a hot house. As one alien explains to the hero in the first film, given everything humans are doing with burning fossil fuels and destroying the rain forests: "We're just finishing what you started. What would have taken you 100 years will only take us 10."

In "The Arrival II" we learn that before his death Zane Zaminski sent packets of information about the alien menace to a few key individuals, including his half-brother, Jack Addison (Patrick Muldoon). He has to be a blood relation because that makes things personal as opposed to merely being concerned with the fate of the world. Those who received the packages from beyond gathered in a meat locker, where Jack meets reporter Bridget Riordan (Jane Sibbett), and Professor Nelson Zarcoff (Michael Sarrazin). It looks like we might be assembling a team of intelligent people in key positions who will be able to work together to stop the menace. But, no, this is going to be primarily a chase film.

The biggest problem with this sequel is that once you understand what the aliens can do and where this script has them embedded in the government, then it is really game over, they win, hope you use really heavy sun screen in the world to come. But on a more intimate level as much as the first film plays fair with the science and the audience, this one insists on yanking our chains. In the first film there is a wonderful sequence where Zane, denied access to radio telescopes, creates his own by hooking up neighborhood satellite dishes that he can use in the dead of night when their owners are asleep. This might be nonsense, but in the context of the film it works. In this one Jack is a computer hacker who can work his magic on the alien computer when in "reality" he would be lucky to figure out how to turn it on let alone do significant programming.

This was Mark David Perry's first script and given the detail and flair of Twohy's original what we have here just pales in comparison, even with a gratuitous nude scene thrown into the mix early on. There is not much the actors can do with this mess and there are few times in the film when they come close to catching the appropriate emotions of the moment since the script keeps insisting they be a step behind in figuring out what is happening.

There is no reason to watch "The Arrival II" (a.k.a. "The Second Arrival") unless you have seen the original. For that matter if you have seen "The Arrival" is little reason to watch this disappointing film because all it can do is remind you why you liked the original. So just go back and watch that one again.