Friday, November 12, 2010

Skyline Review


Right away I have to say that I was actually looking forward to this one. The trailers were rather vague on plot details, aside from it being an alien invasion movie involving a light that sucks people up I had no idea what else to expect. I shouldn't have gotten my hopes up though.

This is another case of every major scene in the movie being shown in the trailers, while every other scene is nothing more than dull padding. Even some of the better scenes of the film are spoiled by the trailers.

So what is the story of Skyline? It is a mash up of nearly every aliens attack plot conceived, with very few original ideas thrown in. It's 50% War of the Worlds, 25% Independence Day, 15% Matrix, with the last 10% taken from any video game involving aliens. In the right hands that could make up a winning combination, but here it equals 100% boring.

What could have saved this mess would have been a cast of characters you could give a shit about, but instead they are annoying and unlikable. I cared so little about these people I can't even remember their names, and since I don't feel like taking the time to IMDB them I'll use the names I had given them.

Most recognizable would be Turk from Scrubs who plays almost the exact same style of character. Then there is his friend played by a guy I've seen before in supporting roles but is given a staring role here. He is meant to be the anchor for the audience, but he is so subdued through out most of the film it's hard to care about him at all. Next is his girlfriend played by Not Jessica Biel who spends most of the movie looking like Jessica Biel and whining about how she doesn't want to go outside. The only other worth mentioning is the guy from Dexter that isn't Dexter, who I'm sure is a talented actor outside of this project, but here fails to deliver emotion even when he is angry.

A majority of the special effects range from decent to meh, but my biggest gripe is with the over all design of the aliens. I think the Strause Brothers have been playing a few to many video games, since most of their aliens feel ripped right out of Gears of War, Resistance, etc. One creature even looks so close to something out of Matrix I would almost consider it a cameo appearance.

Now we come to the ending which ranks up there as one of the worst endings I have seen in a long while. I won't spoil it for anyone still wanting to waste their time on this garbage, but I will make one comment on it. To me it looks like they ran out of money toward the end, and to make up for they decide to show the final scene through still shots during the ending credits. This movie ends in a slide show, that is all I have to say about it.

Should you waste your time and money to see this movie? Absolutely not. Nothing happens through most of the film, in fact 95% of it takes place inside one building. The characters are dull and uninteresting, leaving the audience with no one to identify with. Watch the trailer and you will see everything that is worth seeing, end of story.

Final Score: D-