Skyline

Dir: Colin Strause & Greg Strause (AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem)
Cast: Eric Balfour, Donald Faison, David Zayas, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel
USA, 2010

Seen: November 13, 2010 at AMC Y&D

Reason to see: Science fiction is always a yes, as are films with Eric Balfour

I was looking forward to Skyline for quite a while, because once you stack up that it's science fiction, it's looked like it had epic proportions and scale and I'm a big fan of Eric Balfour (Six Feet Under, Haven), but overall, this film was a bit of a mess. It really, really was. I wanted to like it, I truly did, but it just kept getting messier and messier.

To be fair, the action and effects are good - well, better than good, they are great in it of themselves. There are a couple interesting and innovative ideas in their as well. But, the overall idea is pretty thin and the characters are really thin. Normally for big action it can be okay to have thin characters, but here the audience really is suppose to empathize with the characters and experience the fear of an alien invasion through them, and I just didn't feel like that was happening. Plus, the female characters left a lot to be desired, and it’s weird because it’s as not bad as films with rampant gender crap or offensive remarks, but here the the female characters for so much of the time they never did anything. And I was like “why are they even there?” It just seemed so ridiculous as they were not flushed out at all. The male characters weren't totally flushed out but you knew why they were doing what they were doing, what their motivations and relationships were, but not so much with the women.

It certainly danced the line of showing us stuff that looks cool without always knowing what we were looking at or why, which in a weird way made it continue to be entertaining but never more entertaining than it was disappointing. We get just a handful of science fiction films every year, so when one doesn’t met expectations it hurts just that much more. Even so, I know I’d easily watch it again because I’m a sucker for science fiction and I’ll take what I can get! But I don't think it's going to win anyone new over to the genre, and if you want to see it for just the effects that is likely the best viewpoint to go with to see Skyline.

If reviewed theatrically, add this to that post - See also: Skyline DVD Review

Shannon's Overall View:
I was disappointed with it
I'd watch it again
I'd recommend to science fiction fans

4 minutes of preshow including 2 commercials and 2 previews: I Am Number Four and Season of the Witch

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© Shannon Ridler, 2010