Skyline [Blu-ray]

Why does this movie suck so bad? It feels like a test for a special effects company that had a few scenes designed around it/them. The plot as it stands. A group of friends get stuck in a Miami condo when these big bad (and actually cool looking) aliens attack. Group goes from room to room and even out in the street for some more alien action. Group eventually meets up with aliens for final (ridiculous) showdown. The dialogue and acting are so bad (stilted, boring, EYE-rollingly dumb)that the actors make the cast of Independence Day look like Oscar contenders.

I watched this free and wound up fast forwarding at least half the movie as I found it repetetive on top of stupid. I like sci-fi, and one interesting idea deserves a shot. But Cloverfield this is not. Save your time and money and watch the trailer, then go bang your head against some drywall a few times. You'll get the same experience in much less time.

Wow, this movie is taking a beating. I rather enjoyed it, but I seem to be in the vast minority here.

There will be some spoilers here, but really, the upshot of my review is that it's a 90% bog standard alien invasion B-movie.

First, the premise. Aliens invade earth, proceed to beam up people into their ships to suck out their brains and "life force". I should note, that this is absolutely no different or more cheesy than other alien B-movies, so picking Skyline apart based on that is unfair. It's not pretending to be a high brow intellectual production.

Here is also revealed the best part of the movie, which sets it apart from virtually every other alien movie, is that we know NOTHING about these aliens. No scientist figures out their language, or hacks into their mothership, or divines their intentions, or finds a trivial way to defeat them through some silly built-in weakness. There is NOTHING. They're just super-technologically advanced beings against whom humanity stands no chance. None. They come in and annihilate everything at will, not a question of how much, but how quickly.

Second, the effects. Most of the movie is special effects. As far as sets and practical effects, the budget was simply too small. Just some dude's apartment and a blue screen. But, the aliens look very cool. As always with special effects, the question is how well they will age. Sure, they look great today, but chances are they will be cheesy by the next decade, if not sooner.

The entertainment value in Skyline comes from the look and atmosphere, and the vision of the aliens themselves. We don't know who they are. They're not interested in negotiations. We don't know how they view us; do we matter, or are we just ants? What are their values? Many alien movies like to anthropomorphise their aliens. Which is boring, because they all end up being the same. They should be alien, in every sense of the word. And Skyline brings that vision a step closer.

That said, I agree with some of the more coherent reviewers here that Skyline is a couple minutes too long. It should have ended when the two protagonists get sucked into the alien ship. There, the end. Either way, it's not a happy ending, which I admire, because it takes balls. You know when you do this you're excluding most of the movie watching public. Even The Darkest Hour, which showed promise on the plot, on paper, but is far and away vastly inferior to Skyline in every way imaginable, tries to pull off a happy ending; there is a way to fight the aliens.

On the balance though, I've fund Skyline a worthy addition to my BR collection; not an Oscar contender by any means, but enjoyable for what it is. Keep expectations in line.

Skyline(released Nov/10)is a so so Sci Fi thriller,minus the thrills and chills.In an industry which has seen an amazing rise in the phenom of directing/producing brothers,comes this one directed by the Brothers Strause.Known mostly for their music video works and their first directed disappointment Alien Vs Predator:Requiem,the Strause Brothers make the same mistake here as in the AVP movie;their inability to gain little to no empathy from the audience for their characters/and or situations.If the audience has no stake in it then the film will fail to deliver no matter what.
The plot involves a couple of friends who come together;one Jarrod and Elaine from New York go to L.A. to visit friend Terry and his fiance Candice.Elaine gets sick twice during travel which of course seems to indicate she may be pregnant,which is later confirmed at Terry's apartment.Terry throws a party for the arriving couple and at about 4:30am the morning after a strange but very bright light source and sound emanating from outside their high rise building,slowly wakes them all.One of the first to peep out from behind the blinds to see what is going on starts to turn;first the eyes a milky white,then the skin becomes veined and blackened.In a short time he gets sucked out of the apartment.Jarrod comes in to find the mans girlfriend crying and he stares at the light and also starts to turn,while walking towards the balcony.Just in the nick of time his friend Terry intervenes and saves him.
When they step back for a moment they realize that there are groups of strange lights throughout L.A.,and it is a city under siege from some unknown force.After a while the lights ascend into the sky and all seems to be peaceful until there are noises heard and dust clouds seen.Something was left behind.Then the lights return and this time it is with spacecraft.The spacecraft can be seen literally sucking hundreds of people at a time up to their craft,through the lights.From here on out it is a matter of survival as the group try to get out of the building,which is being swept from the outside by flying bio-mechanical beings,probing for survivors/victims.They try an escape from the underground garage in two cars but get stopped immediately by a huge Godzilla like bio-mech,which kills Terry.They flee inside and back up to their apartment.
The building security man joins the now smaller group.From the window they observe a huge mothership which is now under attack by the US Air Force.One Stealth fighter manages to hit the thing with a nuclear missile and it brings it down,but it is not out,as a host of smaller bio-mechs emerge to again terrorize the populace.Jarrod and Elaine go to the roof only to be sucked up into one of the ships.And inside we go.Here we find the aliens need,like the reanimated corpses of Return of the Living Dead.....brains,and lots of them!They use the human brains to run their bio-mechs.They get Jarrod's brain and Jarrod is actually able to take control of himself/the bio-mech and saves Elaine from a fate worse than death.The film ends as bio-mech Jarrod stands alone against the aliens in the ship.
This film,along with a lack of good characterization,also has some pretty glaring script/plot flaws.More than half way through the movie Jarrod asks the security man what he thinks those things are out there.Now a four year old could tell you that they were under attack from aliens,but that word is never used in this film.So that makes the characters stupid,therefore there's no empathy.How stupid?....very stupid,and that is stranger than the movie itself.The security guy also gets on Jarrods back as soon as they get back up to his friend Terry's apartment.Jarrod is grieving over his best friends very recent death,and he has this guy,for no reason,playing macho man,on his case and telling him to snap out of it.The normal reaction from anyone would be to deck the guy.But Jarrod just seems to say to himself"yeah,you're right,I should suck it up".Then we have that Stealth fighter jet that nukes the mothership.Now if you have a CGI sequence like that,the whole idea is to make it seem real,is it not?If you have not seen the film,that pilot must have been on speed because he was doing flip overs and maneuvers right out of a cartoon show;avoiding almost everything the mothership was throwing at it.That made the entire good guys coming to the rescue thingy,all too fake and totally unrealistic.Obviously the Brothers Strause had a plot thread they wanted sewn up and that Stealth jet was going to do what they wanted it to do,no matter how it looked.
Technically speaking the movie is in its w/s a/r of 2:40:1 and is clear and crisp.Extras include commentary,some alternate and deleted scenes,and more.
All in all a disappointing Sci Fi romp.The idea was certainly a good one,but its execution failed miserably,as the film lacks any empathy for its characters and/or situations,which are at times unrealistic and phony.One to avoid.