Why am I saying this? Because I want you to realise that what I review is based upon my own biased opinion. That how I see the film is personal to me. Even with this being said I look into the film with as much depth as I can, focusing on all elements from directing to soundtrack to acting.
The reason I say this is because no one likes Skyline. It's currently on 14% on RT.
But I loved the film.
Okay, maybe saying that I loved the film is taking it a bit too far. The film was immensely enjoyable. All of the naysayers out there seem to think that this film has a terrible plot, terrible script and terrible acting from actors who have the gall to not be Tom Cruise, Jennifer Aniston or whoever they feel should be in this movie as they are considered an A-list celebrity.
The fame of a celebrity does not make the film. In fact, it sometimes ruins it as you constantly feel you should compare this role to all their other roles. So was the problem with Donald Faison, who I shall refer to as Turk (anyone who doesn’t know why should stop reading as they are not worthy to be reading this). The fact that we know him as Turk takes away from anything that he may have to offer with his character. I detached myself from remembering him as Turk, but I still could only think of him as Turk, not Terry. Through the brief moments of non-Scrubs related thinking I was able to see he wasn’t too bad at portraying his character. In fact, he was good.
And so was everyone else. They all were. Everyone made their roles extremely convincing. I believed that this is exactly how people may react to this form of invasion. This wasn’t just due to their acting, though, but also due to the script, which, believe it or not from what everyone seems to be saying, was good.
Seriously. You look at it. Okay, maybe it is very derivative of a lot of alien invasion films, War of the Worlds being the obvious one. But it still took a new angle on the genre. In no film involving an alien invasion have I seen such a wide-scale abduction. War of the Worlds faltered in this sense, just showing us pretty SFX instead of delivering a solid narrative. The aliens in that seemed to sporadically choose to do something new with the humans every now and then, throwing them around, then zapping them, then harvesting them. But we don’t find out what they are doing these things for.
Skyline shows us what they do, but it’s through slow build-up and pacing that we find these things out. The film constantly has us asking “Why?” and it delivers. It may not be the full answer, but we make up the answer in our minds, leaving it open to interpretation. We are given enough information to attempt to make a judgement, but we are not force fed the answers.
The effects in this film are fantastic and compliment the plot amazingly. There are a couple of times where the SFX falter, but overall they are astounding. It is only through these SFX that we can also be shown the aliens (what they look like and their ships). The designs for the aliens appear to be somewhat like that Sentinels from the Matrix trilogy, being a strange combination of what I took to be organic matter and flesh.
Sadly, at times the film can be somewhat laughable. The way in which the humans are sucked into the UFOs are a little bit comedic, with the bodies of the people just floating about as if being brought into the land of Oz. Not only this, but at times there are some pretty silly looking slow motion sequences that are just far too slow.
This film is also extremely bleak. If you do go see it you will understand what I mean. Most invasion films seem very triumphant at the end (I’m looking at you, War of the Worlds) and seems to suggest that HUMANS ARE AWESOME! But, when it comes to technological and evolutionary terms, the aliens are far superior to us. Yes we have nukes and guns and all the business but they have great big aggressive beasts, the ability to fly, a form of rejuvenating factor and technology far superior to our own. In all terms of the words: we are screwed.
Some people complain that this film is too centralised on the people living in the flat. That it doesn’t show the true scope of the invasion, that the effects of the invasion aren’t shown within the city. I have to bring up a few points concerning this:
- There are scenes showing people fighting back, if only one or two scenes.
- The whole point of the film is to focus on how this small group of people try to survive, somewhat reminiscent of George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead.
- Almost every single person in the city is sucked into the spaceships. How can there be widespread fear and panic in the city when there is no one to cause the panic?
I will be completely honest, though: this film isn’t great. To be honest it’s probably just above average in my books. It had the feel from the very start of a SyFy original movie. The CGI isn’t as bad, but the cast and the actual feel of the movie make it seem so (I know I said the cast didn’t matter, but when a film already feels like it could easily be a made-for-TV film you can’t help but notice these things).
However, Skyline is extremely enjoyable. If you like B-Movies involving aliens or the likes then you should love this film. It isn’t a B-Movie in itself (maybe a B+/A- movie) but it feels slightly reminiscent of one. I wouldn’t be surprised if this gained some sort of cult following in years to come, but I honestly wouldn’t be surprised if it just fell off the radar and no one ever talked about it ever again.
Go see this film. If the critics are to go by then you will hate it. However, if you go into the film with an open mind and let the drama take you in, notice that this is not about the alien invasion per se but more so about the interactions between the survivors, then you should have a fun time.
Whether you find it funny, horrific or you are actually enjoying the film for what it is, Skyline is a wonderful looking flick that may actually entertain you.
Final Verdict: 6/10
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