Review of Skyline (2010) by Ana C — 12 Apr 2013

Given that The Brothers Strause were the men responsible for inflicting the Hollyoaks Vs. Aliens Vs. Predator unpleasantness that was AVP: Requiem upon the world, you'd be forgive for approaching Skyline with the usual amount of carefulness you'd reserve for using the words "please castrate me.".

Thankfully Skyline is better than their previous effort. Not much mind, but at least it has a couple of redeeming features. In a bizarre mix of Cloverfield and Independence Day, the film follows a bunch of well to do 20-something's as aliens arrive over Los Angeles and start sucking everyone up into their big spaceships. Your skin sort of burns first for reasons that we're never really told.......the Strause siblings must have just thought it looked cool.

There's some nice jump scares from time to time and a real sense that no character is actually safe which gives the film a slightly refreshing tone. Some of the infighting between the cast of US TV stars isn't bad, Eric Balfour and that guy who was Turk in Scrubs and one of them off Sweet Valley High are amongst them. You sadly don't feel much sympathy for them as they're the kind of people you automatically hate but it is fun seeing them become alien dinner.

Skyline unfortunately, for most of it's run time, doesn't have an original bone in it's body. This is not always a problem as long as you're doing things right but Skyline isn't. The film seems to go round in circles until the final five minutes when it actually dares to do something different, only to roll it's credits a few seconds later. This, rather than leaving us begging to see what happens next, just makes the whole thing seem a little pointless. If you've got an interesting idea, then use it....don't dangle it at your audience after making them suffer through Close Encounters of the Real World Kind!!

Skyline is a step in the right direction for Greg and Colin Strause. They've managed to prove that they can concoct a decent scare sequence or two and not have to totally rely on shock tactics - there's no sign of aliens invading a maternity ward here, thank god!. They've still a long way to go as Skyline is far from a good film.