Review of Skyline (2010) by Tom S — 04 Jan 2014

Skyline was actually quite fun. However, do NOT make the mistake believing that this movie is good. It's like a Roland Emmerich film, which is why I don't get why everyone hates it. Let's go over the factors:

Story: Aliens come down to Earth and start abducting people. Their primary source of attack is a blue light that hypnotizes people who look into it, and then they get sucked up. Meanwhile, Jarrod and Elaine are visiting the former's friend Terry in his Los Angeles condo. When the aliens invade, they're just trying to survive. A couple of subplots are included, but they're all just sequel bait (Elaine finds out she's pregnant). And the aliens? Their motivation for coming here is why zombies love us humans.

Characters/Acting: The characters are two-dimensional, but so are Roland Emmerich's. Jarrod is the guy who's just trying to keep his girlfriend safe. Oliver is the badass who actually gets some cool lines ('Vaya con dios, you son of a bitch!').

Other character's aren't necessarily cliches, but they are flat. However, it seems that most of the actors are actually trying to put effort into their roles. Most of them still fail, but I'll give credit to Eric Balfour as Jarrod, who manages to make his role slightly believable, and David Zayas as Oliver, who plays his role pretty well. But let me tell you; there are two characters I hate: Candace, Terry's bitchy girlfriend, and Jen, who just won't stop shrieking.

Aliens/Special Effects: This was filmed for 10 million dollars, and probably 98% went to the special effects. They're not groundbreaking, but they're still incredible to look at. However, they seem to take a hit when the characters are interacting with them (which isn't often). The aliens are freaking awesome. They're diverse in form, and they move like real aliens would. I also love their invulnerability to pretty much anything: A character blows himself up destroy one, but it just gets badly burnt. Hell, there's a part in the movie where the aliens are NUKED and they just come back. You can practically hear them saying 'Bitch, that all you got?' This leads into the final factor.

Ending: People seem to really hate this, but I think it's really cool in one way and disappointing in another. You see *spoilers* the aliens actually win in the movie. The army gets their asses handed to them when they fight it. Aliens destroy every flying vehicle (in one of my favorite parts, the two characters are about to get rescued by the chopper, but at the last second, a huge alien throws a tentacle at it and spins it out of control.). There's even a montage showing that all of Earth's major cities have fallen to the aliens, eradicating any hope of some sort of deus ex machina. This is when the disappointing part comes in. Jarrod and Elaine realize the humans lost, and the allow themselves to get abducted by the aliens. Jarrod's brain is used to fuel an alien drone, but Elaine is spared for a while for being pregnant. So while most brains just give the aliens power, Jarrod actually retains control of his alien body and starts to fight them while protecting his girlfriend. And... the end. It just shows him fighting during the credits, and nothing else. This did bug me, because I was really interested at this point. But I'll forgive it.

Conclusion: This movie was super entertaining. It's especially amusing because it takes itself seriously, despite being incredibly stupid. If you like those kinds of movies, check it out on Netflix. I had a blast.