And that's that. No invasion armies, no target practice using asteroids. Just a brief and amiable encounter. This is most likely how it will go when it happens in real life. Or just as likely we will receive a message but the interstellar distances will be so great that we will never actually meet those who sent it.
Space is huge.
We are quite isolated out here in the backwaters of the Orion spiral arm. Now that we have seen a realistic portrayal of mankind's first encounter with alien life, let's get ready to take a look at a less credible one. This was a really fun movie. I've seen it several times and, despite the excessive similarities to V , feel that the creators of the film did a great job of reviving general interest in science fiction. But let's face it, this is not how we are going to encounter alien life.