Skyline
Starring: Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, Crystal Reed, Donald Faison
Director: Colin & Greg Strause
Rating: 3/5
You don’t have an alien movie come grace the big screen all year and then three a re set to come along in quick succession; Skyline, Monsters and Battle: Los Angeles in the new year.
With the massive success of District 9, which went on to be nominated for a Best Picture Oscar, last year these movies have a hell of a lot to live up to and it’s the Strause Brothers’ movie Skyline that shows it’s hand first.
After a late night party, a group of friends are awoken in the dead of the night by an eerie light beaming through the window.
Like moths to a flame, the light source is drawing people outside before they suddenly vanish into the air.
They soon discover an otherworldly force is swallowing the entire human population off the face of the earth. Now our band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
While the movie has been dubbed, along with Monsters, as the District 9 of 2010 sadly Skyline doesn’t hit the dizzy heights that Neill Blomkamp’s feature length directorial debut did just over twelve months ago.
But what I will say is the visual effects of this movie are stunning, hard to believe that it was made on just $10-20 million.
The Strause Brothers are masters of visual effects and this time around they do not disappoint as the alien fleet look magnificent, a real highlight of the film.
It’s a fairly understated cast, many of them coming from TV, and this works in the films favour as there is no big name eclipsing what is going on on screen, something that really does seem to work for this genre.
The plot is a little soap operish at the beginning with affairs and pregnancy going on but once the alien invasion is in full flow that’s when the movie really does start to get good as the special effects come into their own and steal the show.
This movie is not about character development it’s about a battle to survive so these are not well rounded properly fleshed out characters; however the central performances from Balfour and Thompson drive the film forward as they try and help one another survive.
The movie is set in-side a rather plush apartment block, where the cast find themselves trapped after the aliens invade and destroy LA.
Now while this does add a trapped and claustrophobic aspect to the film it is also its draw back as there is very little in terms of action. It’s only when the characters try to make a run for it is it truly exciting.
Sadly District 9 this is not however the Strause Brothers have made a highly entertaining addition to this alien genre, you should just go and see this movie for the effects because they really are something.
It’s a fast paced ninety minutes of entertainment - however the jury really is out on the ending as, for me, it really didn’t work and perhaps leaving what happened to the humans after they are captured to the imagination would have been better.
Skyline is out now.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw