A small budget stretched to great effects
THE PLOT
Strange blue lights descend from the early morning sky over Los Angeles drawing curious people outside like mystical sirens. Hundreds of thousands of onlookers are sucked up into the air to the waiting space ships whilst we follow the panic and desperation of a small group struggling to stay alive.
Eventually a defence is mounted but can the invaders be pushed back before no one is left to save?
THE REVIEW
Essentially this film is Independence Day meets Cloverfield. No bad thing you might say, but this film lacks the star power and humour of Independence Day nor does it deliver the tension of Cloverfield.
The biggest failing of this film however, was in the characterisation of our survivors. There was no strong character to hang this picture on and therefore no one to care about. The script makes only the slightest attempt to establish the characters before the action trickles in.
This isn’t helped by the casting of B Grade actors (24’s Eric Balfour, Scrubs Donald Faison and Dawson’s Creek’s Brittany Daniel) that lack the charisma or acting chops to bring their characters to life, in spite of mediocre dialogue. This was part of the success of Independence Day in that it took standard Hollywood fodder and threw actors and comedians into it, giving viewers more grounding and evoking a sense of fun.
Whilst fun was probably not the goal of Skyline, it was clearly supposed to be gripping, but without anybody worth caring about you find yourself waiting for the next explosion or gruesome encounter. Surely part of the essence of ‘gripping’ is that you either don’t know what will happen next or sometimes you may not even want to find out; Skyline falls well short of the mark on this. You find yourself knowing pretty much what’s comings next and you wish it would happen faster! Hardly gripping.
The best moments of this film are in the creature encounters, which might be expected from a Sci Fi flick, but these were too few and far between for most of the movie. Skyline attempts to create the same sense of unknowing tension engendered by Cloverfield, but broadly fails. Perhaps this is due to the manner of the hand-held camera work in JJ Abrams superior 2008 feature. Of course it was this same camera work that sometimes made for a difficult watch, but had that approach been taken here this film might have felt more edgy.
The effects in Skyline were perhaps the best feature of this film, no real surprise coming from Hydralux, the outfit behind the stunning effects of Avatar. However, even here, and as good as they are, the big effects of a small budget are nothing new to cinema, especially when compared to box office hit District 9, which at least managed to develop a great central character as well.
The only moment I experienced something close to panic was in the closing scene as I realised the producers were leaving things open for a sequel!
THE VERDICT
A poor man’s Independence Day. Not an awful film but equally, not particularly good. If you’re already paying for movies on satellite or cable wait ‘til it lands there, otherwise you might feel like and bit of a mug.
TC
NOW SEE THE TRAILER... BUT GO NO FURTHER!
UK Release Date: 12 November 2010
Eventually a defence is mounted but can the invaders be pushed back before no one is left to save?
THE REVIEW
Essentially this film is Independence Day meets Cloverfield. No bad thing you might say, but this film lacks the star power and humour of Independence Day nor does it deliver the tension of Cloverfield.
The biggest failing of this film however, was in the characterisation of our survivors. There was no strong character to hang this picture on and therefore no one to care about. The script makes only the slightest attempt to establish the characters before the action trickles in.
This isn’t helped by the casting of B Grade actors (24’s Eric Balfour, Scrubs Donald Faison and Dawson’s Creek’s Brittany Daniel) that lack the charisma or acting chops to bring their characters to life, in spite of mediocre dialogue. This was part of the success of Independence Day in that it took standard Hollywood fodder and threw actors and comedians into it, giving viewers more grounding and evoking a sense of fun.
Whilst fun was probably not the goal of Skyline, it was clearly supposed to be gripping, but without anybody worth caring about you find yourself waiting for the next explosion or gruesome encounter. Surely part of the essence of ‘gripping’ is that you either don’t know what will happen next or sometimes you may not even want to find out; Skyline falls well short of the mark on this. You find yourself knowing pretty much what’s comings next and you wish it would happen faster! Hardly gripping.
The best moments of this film are in the creature encounters, which might be expected from a Sci Fi flick, but these were too few and far between for most of the movie. Skyline attempts to create the same sense of unknowing tension engendered by Cloverfield, but broadly fails. Perhaps this is due to the manner of the hand-held camera work in JJ Abrams superior 2008 feature. Of course it was this same camera work that sometimes made for a difficult watch, but had that approach been taken here this film might have felt more edgy.
The effects in Skyline were perhaps the best feature of this film, no real surprise coming from Hydralux, the outfit behind the stunning effects of Avatar. However, even here, and as good as they are, the big effects of a small budget are nothing new to cinema, especially when compared to box office hit District 9, which at least managed to develop a great central character as well.
The only moment I experienced something close to panic was in the closing scene as I realised the producers were leaving things open for a sequel!
THE VERDICT
A poor man’s Independence Day. Not an awful film but equally, not particularly good. If you’re already paying for movies on satellite or cable wait ‘til it lands there, otherwise you might feel like and bit of a mug.
TC
NOW SEE THE TRAILER... BUT GO NO FURTHER!
UK Release Date: 12 November 2010
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