Wow! Such a good movie.

Why so much hype?

The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

1983 was perhaps the peak year for the TV mini-series, with The Thorn Birds, The Winds of War and V all premiering to big ratings. V features a worldwide alien invasion, as huge, circular motherships arrive and take up stationary orbit all over the planet, directly over large cities. The media soon dubs them the "Visitors", and they appear human, although sensitive to the light and with strange voices. They seem to be benevolent at first, sharing medical and technological breakthroughs, while not asking for anything in return. But of course they are after something, and they will stop at nothing to get it, and soon they are disposing of enemies and setting up human collaboration units to weed out the "undesirables". A group of people soon set up an underground resistance, but can they hope to stop the seemingly superior alien invaders? Marc Singer stars as a heroic war correspondent who is the first to learn of the aliens true nature, along with Faye Grant as a biologist, Jane Badler as an alien commander, Richard Herd, Andrew Prine, Leonardo Cimino as a Holocaust survivor who sees the writing on the wall, Evan Kim, Michael Wright, Bonnie Bartlett, Neva Patterson, Robert Englund as a friendly alien, and many more.This was probably intended as a starting point for a series, but instead it led to another mini-series the following year, before finally a short-lived series (and a remake in 2009). It's derivative of a lot of things, namely the Arthur C. Clarke novel Childhood's End. It's also a very heavy-handed allegory of the Nazi occupations in Europe and the Holocaust; the alien symbol is even a variation on a swastika. The effects are decent, if dated at this point, and the script, by writer-director Kenneth Johnson, never really rises above average. But it's fun in a dopey, Saturday-morning serial way. At slightly over 3 hours, it's also a bit short as far as mini-series go.

This is probably as good as it could have been for a 1983 TV (Miniseries). All the ingredients are here for some fine Small Screen Entertainment. It is the stuff Sci-Fi is made of, fantastical gadgets and spacecraft, Visitors with mysterious intentions, an advanced Society making contact with a more primitive Culture, pockets of skeptics, Native sympathizers, Freedom Fighters, and so on.This is more than cliché. It is the bedrock of the Genre and everything from Jules Verne to H.G. Wells to Arthur C. Clarke to Rod Serling to Gene Roddenberry to George Lucas to, well you get it, is homaged by Kenneth Johnson's little TV Epic as he just tapped into this Mythos and delivered an allegory that was top-notch TV.The Cult following that this Phenom has is well deserved and is mostly based on this Original Miniseries with some reservations on the follow-up and the Weekly Series that ran for two Years. None of the aftermath Shows diminished the Power of the Original and even today it is thought provoking and great Entertainment. It has Heart and is a timeless Horror/Sci-Fi Tale of caution and is rightfully placed as one of the best Miniseries TV has offered.

This is the finest ever made for TV mini series I have seen. I remember watching it when originally broadcast and recently bought the DVD and re watched. Not only does it hold up, it seems better to me now than when I first saw it 29 years ago. Leonard Cimino is brilliant as the aged holocaust survivor who lost his wife in a concentration camp. He makes the most of his part and teaches us all not only how to fight, but how to love. The beautiful Faye Grant is awesome as the leader of the resistance. While there are obvious allusions to the Nazis, it is amazing how much of the story mimics today- There are allegations of "Owning the press and the news media." Civil rights and homes are lost. The visitors, with their own version of Obama's "Hope and Change" really had their own agenda, which they dare not reveal. I really enjoyed this, there was surprisingly little gore, and scenes of torture were implied, but not shown. Well done and very enjoyable.

Aliens and their spaceships circle the major cities above the earth before they land. Of course, they have their real motives which are far more disastrous for us humans. They want our water and they need food but beneath their skins, lie an iguana and lizardlike complexion. Not only that, they talk funny like with a second tongue. In this mini-series, they first appear friendly but they are deadly. It takes Marc Singer and Fay Grant to see through their phony lies and pretense regarding the aliens desire to maintain their existence. How will they fight aliens who are far more super technological than we are? With all the controversy regarding UFOs, it is no wonder why they are so afraid of turning up on earth and becoming lab experiments.