I saw this movie on the weekend with my girlfriend. Now I'm going to tell you all what I think about it, because that's just the kind of guy I am.
The basic plot of the movie is familiar: aliens come to Earth and wreck our shit, and a ragtag group tries to fight them off. The specifics, however, set the movie apart. There's no cocky pilot talking back to his superiors, there's no technological breakthrough that makes everything magically okay, and there's no military force that figures out how to take down the invaders in the thirteenth hour. Okay, so basically I'm just saying it's not Independence Day, but I figure since that movie basically borrowed from every other alien invasion movie that had been made up to that point, that's enough to say it's unlike them all.
Instead, Skyline has a lot of confusion, a lot of fear, and a lot of panic. Nobody knows what to do, and the technology the aliens bring is advanced enough that my first thought when I saw it was "holy crap that's cool technology." On top of that, aside from some of the aliens being bipedal, the visual and capability designs were original enough that it didn't feel like I was just watching another movie I'd already seen.
So the plot was familiar but well done, and the characters were believable and adequately acted, but I like to think I've injected an implied "but..." into my narrative on the movie's narrative up to this point. And here it is: the movie was good, but the ending was awkward. After an hour and a half of fairly logical character development, something happens that's severe enough as to say "hold on to your dicks, it's time to get this party rolling." And then the movie immediately ends. Most movies have a point about halfway through where things have been bad for long enough, and it's time for the good guys to start winning; this movie seems to have forgotten about the second part, and just left it out.
Overall I think I need to give this movie six viagras out of ten. It starts off strong, but then just when it's time to unleash the fury it comes up limp and goes home.
Something I have to address before closing this out is the premise of the aliens. Without getting too far into information revealed in the spoiler text, their purpose for coming to the planet seems entirely based on self perpetuation. Basically, without doing what they're doing, their race wouldn't survive. This draws out the question (because "begs the question" doesn't actually work that way) of how the race would have developed in such a way that this is a reasonable evolutionary step.
And what would have happened if they didn't find Earth? Or if they landed on a planet where the various species didn't have an adequately compatible physiology? The whole race could die out due to nothing more than bad luck. It may be true that any aliens that find us are likely not to be friendly, but I seriously doubt the plausibility of a race such as the one in Skyline just because the odds of it surviving over time seem extremely low.
The basic plot of the movie is familiar: aliens come to Earth and wreck our shit, and a ragtag group tries to fight them off. The specifics, however, set the movie apart. There's no cocky pilot talking back to his superiors, there's no technological breakthrough that makes everything magically okay, and there's no military force that figures out how to take down the invaders in the thirteenth hour. Okay, so basically I'm just saying it's not Independence Day, but I figure since that movie basically borrowed from every other alien invasion movie that had been made up to that point, that's enough to say it's unlike them all.
Instead, Skyline has a lot of confusion, a lot of fear, and a lot of panic. Nobody knows what to do, and the technology the aliens bring is advanced enough that my first thought when I saw it was "holy crap that's cool technology." On top of that, aside from some of the aliens being bipedal, the visual and capability designs were original enough that it didn't feel like I was just watching another movie I'd already seen.
So the plot was familiar but well done, and the characters were believable and adequately acted, but I like to think I've injected an implied "but..." into my narrative on the movie's narrative up to this point. And here it is: the movie was good, but the ending was awkward. After an hour and a half of fairly logical character development, something happens that's severe enough as to say "hold on to your dicks, it's time to get this party rolling." And then the movie immediately ends. Most movies have a point about halfway through where things have been bad for long enough, and it's time for the good guys to start winning; this movie seems to have forgotten about the second part, and just left it out.
Overall I think I need to give this movie six viagras out of ten. It starts off strong, but then just when it's time to unleash the fury it comes up limp and goes home.
So the movie starts with that weird boat dude from Haven in bed with someone who's way too hot for him, and some big beams of light shine down into the streets in a manner very reminiscent of War of the Worlds. It turns out the aliens use the light to draw people to them in order to extract their brains for use in their own future generations, who will in turn capture more humans in order to steal their brains.
It then turns out that if you were in the light but didn't get sucked in, you're still permanently affected by the light and if you have weird facial hair you also gain super strength and the ability to run with a hole in your leg. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
After the aliens almost totally depopulate downtown L.A. the military starts trying to fight back, eventually firing a nuke at one of the hovering ships, destroying the city and downing the craft, only to have the ship reassemble itself and float back up into the air as if nothing happened. Cool technology, bro.
Meanwhile, the assorted stereotypes all die off in amusingly appropriate ways, until finally the weird Haven dude and his too hot girlfriend sacrifice themselves for each other and get sucked up into the alien ship. There we learn that his brain has been taken, and her pregnancy (which we learn about at the beginning and which doesn't come into play again until this very instant, despite lots of running and stress, though she does mention it when someone lights a cigarette) saves her brain from extraction. He takes over the alien into which his brain is put, and saves her from an attack that somehow would have killed her but not harmed her brain, and he gets ready to kick some serious ass ...then the movie ends.
It then turns out that if you were in the light but didn't get sucked in, you're still permanently affected by the light and if you have weird facial hair you also gain super strength and the ability to run with a hole in your leg. But I'm getting ahead of myself.
After the aliens almost totally depopulate downtown L.A. the military starts trying to fight back, eventually firing a nuke at one of the hovering ships, destroying the city and downing the craft, only to have the ship reassemble itself and float back up into the air as if nothing happened. Cool technology, bro.
Meanwhile, the assorted stereotypes all die off in amusingly appropriate ways, until finally the weird Haven dude and his too hot girlfriend sacrifice themselves for each other and get sucked up into the alien ship. There we learn that his brain has been taken, and her pregnancy (which we learn about at the beginning and which doesn't come into play again until this very instant, despite lots of running and stress, though she does mention it when someone lights a cigarette) saves her brain from extraction. He takes over the alien into which his brain is put, and saves her from an attack that somehow would have killed her but not harmed her brain, and he gets ready to kick some serious ass ...then the movie ends.
Something I have to address before closing this out is the premise of the aliens. Without getting too far into information revealed in the spoiler text, their purpose for coming to the planet seems entirely based on self perpetuation. Basically, without doing what they're doing, their race wouldn't survive. This draws out the question (because "begs the question" doesn't actually work that way) of how the race would have developed in such a way that this is a reasonable evolutionary step.
And what would have happened if they didn't find Earth? Or if they landed on a planet where the various species didn't have an adequately compatible physiology? The whole race could die out due to nothing more than bad luck. It may be true that any aliens that find us are likely not to be friendly, but I seriously doubt the plausibility of a race such as the one in Skyline just because the odds of it surviving over time seem extremely low.
