Today’s quick review: Skyline. On a visit to Los Angeles, Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) end up trapped in his friend Terry’s (Donald Faison) penthouse when aliens invade the city and begin abducting its residents. Together with Terry’s girlfriend Candice (Brittany Daniel) and his assistant Denise (Crystal Reed), the group must find a way out of Terry’s apartment building and to safety.
Skyline is a science fiction survival thriller with a low budget and impressive special effects. The film follows the standard alien invasion formula to a tee: a group of survivors must face an alien menace they have no way of fighting against. Skyline offers a fair amount of action for a budget film, backed by well-used CGI and a decent sense of tension. However, its abrasive characters and bleak tone keep it from holding much appeal.
Skyline has major weaknesses in its characters, its acting, and its script. The parts of the film that are supposed to cause the audience to care are mediocre at best, making the movie more an excercise in survival than a proper story. The survivors never earn much sympathy, but they never drop to the level where schadenfreude kicks in. Coupled with the heroes’ lack of anything to do, this results in a movie that’s hard to invest in.
To its credit, Skyline does a lot with the resources available to it. The film disguises its modest budget well, and the special effects actually let it indulge in a fair amount of action. Skyline also scores a solid hit with its aliens. They are eclectically designed, unexplained, and implausibly hard to kill, but they play well onscreen and give the film a persistent sense of tension. Finally, the movie tucks away one or two good ideas near the end.
Still, Skyline’s virtues are not enough to redeem its weaknesses. For the right viewer, a sci-fi fan who cares about action, tension, and little else, Skyline just squeaks by. But most other viewers would be better served by one of the other movies in the genre. For another budget invasion movie, check out The Darkest Hour or Revolt. For one with more pep, try Attack the Block. For one with a bigger budget and a better script, try War of the Worlds.
4.4 out of 10 on IMDB. I give it a 5.5 for solid CGI and a couple of good ideas, held back by weak acting and writing.