Very interesting documentary, not much about how aliens are going to look, how would they act, but a reflection of humans in a face of visitors.We view ourselves as "moral beings" who still have war against each others, we're corrupt, we are afraid of the unknown. We are afraid of something that we cannot control.In a face of alien visitors, a race that has technology maybe billions of years more advanced than us, intelligence far greater than anything we can produce in centuries.. a being of almost magical properties and with a technology that will seem like magic to us... How can we deal with this "God" himself descending on us humanity. We feel already, with just few signs of "god" appearing to us resulting massive panic and need to form some sort of control of the unknown. We are a race that fears the unknown, and yet we appear to ourselves as capable of making judgment on things that are beyond our understanding. Will we bow to our knees and beg for forgiveness or will we say to these visitors same thing that DC universe movie said to alien visitor: "Tell me... do you bleed?"With such strength of billions of years of advancement in technology, they can wipe us out with just a snap of a finger, create a super virus that can destroy any biological life on instant, they can conjure up black holes in the centers of the planets to consume us all. We feel powerless... and for a good reason.Indeed an alien visitor might share a bright light to us as a species when we recognize that gods that we worship are nothing but an imagery of how we see us... but the real gods might not have such meanings or ethics as we share.Are we really more than a physical beings that really are worthy of saving, are the morals the same as humans, or do they see us like we see cows and pigs, nothing more than soulless selfish beings walking in the dark with no purpose, eating what is presented in front of us... or are we really something of... perhaps divine. Perhaps something that needs to be valued. Is our intelligence enough to give us respect, to give us a reason for our existence?If alien were to visit us, would it be friendly? Would it not just come here to establish a mining colony for their planet, to employ mindless robots to gather minerals and just harvest the planet?Maybe why we haven't been visited is that there's really nothing in our planet that's worth visiting... maybe it's a good thing that we are left alone... for now. Giving a spark of lightning to a monkey in cage would shock it for a lifetime, it would never recover, it would go into panic...As long as our need to control everything is a center of us, it makes impossible for friendly contact lead to something prosperous rather than something that will eventually lead to more misery.Maybe we indeed have been visited, or scanned, but we are seen what we are, a pack of frightened monkeys trying to put sticks together to control everything, and we've been deemed for not worthy of a second visit for thousands of years.The documentary makes very good points on many places but it leaves out the most interesting aspect of the visit, which is our connection to our need for gods, needs for something greater than us to exist... and how it would impact our spiritual ways of thinking.The document is dark themed, but so is life, so are the conflicts between humans. Nothing is what we make it out to be, and that leaves us to hope for a better tomorrow, to seek something of a divine... something lasting, something that is solid. Perhaps our need for god ultimately is a tool for prepare us for the encounter... or perhaps the religion will ultimately make us fear the unknown even more...

Aliens visiting our Earth: it can happen, you know? This is without a doubt a very intriguing premise, but the end result leaves something to be desired. Blame it on the approach, stemming from the lack of archive material to cover, since The Visit: An Alien Encounter revolves around an event that hasn't happened yet and might not ever happen at all. Of course, some dramatization is required when there's little else to show but talking heads. Director Michael Madsen (not the American actor of the same name) opts for an enactment of a possible visit by extraterrestrials, but one that does not show said visitors so as to keep it a complete mystery what they look might like, since we are not likely to find out any time soon. The result is only one side of the visit in question is shown, and it's our own. Which fits the conclusion that whatever else, aliens arriving on our planet will first and foremost be a human affair.First contact will change the way we look at ourselves. Whatever the visitors may look like - similar to humans or something far from it, something so devoid of human characteristics or even traits of other life forms that share our planet - they will place a mirror in front of us as to the questions of our expectations of the unknown, our control or lack thereof over the unknown, and the resulting dealing with the unknown in ways that are all too human. Fear, a very likely scenario, is a prime human condition Madsen addresses, which is why the governments that prepare for 'The Visit' would hope to keep it a quite affair, rather than a public one, considering the ways the public responds are more than likely to be far from calm and orderly. But however controlled those governments plan to keep things, there's so many possibilities provided by our complete lack of knowing what's coming (or what is not coming at all) that control itself is ever an illusion.What's left out of the equation is wonder. Most of the scientists interviewed for this film are so busy delving into the ramifications of the visitors' arrival for humankind that they don't tend to pause and wonder over the eventual happening itself. The very fact that this may actually come to pass, in the distant or even close future. You can't really blame them, as they're sitting opposite a camera, addressing the audience as if they were the visitor and are asked to state the first questions regarding their field expertise that enter their minds considering the subject. And then they turn out the dutiful experts indeed. Though it makes for a scientifically intriguing and philosophically appropriate film, it's not the most inspiring one. Madsen hopes to hold off any stale science talk and lack of pace by adding a bit of action in a recreation of The Visit, complete with frightened mobs and charging soldiers, but his stylistic choices of extreme slow motion give it all an overly sensational and exaggerated feeling. Once again, blame it on the absence of actual extraterrestrials to point the camera at.The Visit: An Alien Encounter is an ambitious and fascinating documentary on paper, but in actuality can't hold off moments of feeling tedious. Nevertheless, the point is well made: if there's aliens coming, be prepared for everything. Some of our governments and scientists certainly are.

I wasn't exactly expecting a Carl Sagan or Bill Nye experience here. But a well done documentary about our views , expectations and fear about possible first contact with an alien civilization on a scientific and philosophical level seemed like a great idea.I'm a long time fan of science fiction and scientific documentaries in connection with such controversial themes can be incredibly interesting What I got was over an hour of bureaucrats, scientists and officials spouting very generic one-line sentences about a possible meeting with aliens and having fake monologue with the viewers like they were aliens. A monologue can be a very efficient way to transmit a message to the audience , I understand what the director was trying to do, but you must have some skills in acting and none of the persons in the movie were actors. So as a result it seemed increasingly forced and fake, actually it was downright embarrassing.Most of the people in the interviews seem to be bored, uninterested or unsurprisingly somewhat embarrassed. Worse nothing they said was interesting and you have heard it all before in more entertaining and educational settings. Yes the director managed to make an noneducational and boring documentary focusing mainly on confused officials discussing the fine points of diplomatic protocols when encountering aliens, double whammy.The whole thing lasted one hour and a half but felt like four, people around us were sighing loudly (And rightly so), some even smarter left as I should have.Stay away from this travesty , and if you're interested in the subject I would recommend the excellent "Through the wormhole, How aliens think" (s4ep5) with Morgan Freeman.Even a descent episode of X-file will leave you feel more enlightened than "the Visit" with the added advantage of providing a bit of entertainment

The concept behind Michael Madsen's documentary is its greatest asset. Rather than interviewing scholars on events that occurred in the past, Madsen gathers a slew of interviewees to discuss a scenario that has never happened. How would mankind react with our first encounter with an alien life form? While it may sound absurd, Madsen introduces audiences to college professors, scientists, government officials and military personnel who have all had these types of conversations before an event like this has manifested. The majority of the project consist of questions being delivered such as, "Why are you here?" "Do you know good vs. evil?" and "Are we mentally prepared?" As a fan of science-fiction cinema, the thought of alien life on Earth has crossed my mind countless times, but to actually witness plans being formulated for such an event is like nothing I have ever witnessed. Would we reveal our own violent nature to our visitors or keep it a secret for as long as possible? Madsen takes a simple idea and makes us all want to believe something could be out there and, if it ever decides to pay a visit, makes us question our preparation skills. -Jimmy Martin