Review of 'Skyline'

Yikes. This was awful. Not the special effects, they were really good, but the characters are unsympathetic, whining young adults that we really don't care whether or not they survive the alien invasion…Oh, yeah, the story:

In Los Angeles, a group of young friends meet to celebrate successful Terry's (Donald Faison) birthday in his penthouse suite. After a heavy night of drinking the hungover friends are startled to discover when looking out the window that a bunch of aliens have landed and are busy harvesting the humans for miles around. Initially having no clue what to do they eventually settle on the idea of getting into a boat from the nearby marina as they note the aliens appear to be avoiding the water. What ends up happening is, one by one, they are picked off by the aliens.

Right, well, the setting is moderately interesting, if somewhat clichéd: Aliens invading earth, people struggling to survive. The setting is probably the “best” part of this film as it is the characters that turned me right off: Spoiled, amoral, shallow young adults who have all the personality of a damp squid (a boring damp squid). They are predictably self-serving, hoping from bed to bed as they wish and indulging in any stimulant that takes their fancy. Or maybe I am just showing my age? But, seriously, sexism is particularly rampant with the helpless ladies' main role being to scream a lot while the macho men are off to save the day (and being dispatched all the more quickly, hurray!). These are sexual politics from the mid 20th century, not the 21st. The only thing we really end up know about the main characters is that they were previously a band or something (I wasn't really paying too much attention as I was distracted by the paint on the wall). To be honest, I just rolled my eyes when they were yapping away waiting for the much more nuanced performances provided by the aliens.

Having said all that, I was somewhat pleasantly surprised at the ending considering this is a Hollywood film but this film has so many holes it could be considered a pretty decent screen door (why anyone would think holing up in the top of an apartment building was a great idea during an invasion, why they would think running across an open square with aliens all around would result in anything but bloodshed, why the heck the aliens need to mesmerise the humans before eating them, etc, etc).

Again, special effects look great but the story and characters are absolutely awful.

Rating: “Not great, but not the worse”

Review Date: 2021-03-20

Directed by: Brothers Strause (Colin Stause; Greg Strause)

Studio: Rogue Pictures

Year: 2010

Length: 92 minutes

Genre: Science Fiction

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1564585/

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