'Skyline' Film Review

Film review by Tom Hunt

Note: The author's views are entirely his or her own and may not reflect the views of RetoxMagazine.com

'Skyline' - DVD Review

The 2010 Indie Sci-Fi Skyline is a lot better than people seem to give it credit for. Keeping in mind it had a small budget to work with the effects are quite impressive, they won't blow you away, but you won't cringe and shake your head at them either. Skyline is an Indie Action Sci-Fi directed by The Brothers Strause, who are better known for their works with visual effects rather than directing. It's not hard to see why there are certain flaws in the film while one of it's strengths is the visuals of it.

The Film Plot

Skyline poster.

Jarrod (Eric Bulfour) and Elaine (Scottie Thompson) arrive in LA to meet Jarrod's old friend Terry.( Donald Faison) After a crazy night of partying they wake to find themselves in the middle of an Alien invasion, using beautiful blue lights to control people into throwing themselves off buildings. Jarrod is taken by the blue light but is stopped before he can jump. This affects Jarrod mentally and more so physically and he can't seem to shake the feeling. After many plans and failed escapes the group decide their best chance would be to lay low and wait it out, hoping help will come. There's some fun close up shots of aliens and a lot of action towards the middle and end of the film with a quite different ending that sends this survivor story in a new direction than seen before.

Different Take On The Familiar Story

Skyline poster.

The group, and individuals within the group are different to that of other alien invasion stories. There's no superhero involved. There's no knocking an alien out with one punch. They're alone and way in over their heads. Following a similar pattern to the likes of Cloverfield, Skyline could easily go off in the typical cliché of turning these characters into larger than life heroes, but instead opts keeps them relatively real, keeping them human. They don't go out into the streets to fight the aliens themselves, they just want to try and survive. After an attempt at escaping the building they know all they can do is wait. The Army tries their best to fight the aliens, but with only a small ground force they're soon picked off. The Air Force gets involved and once again could go the 'Independence Day' route where the aliens are unbeatable, but they're not, they just have a very clever method of survival. The film offers constant glimmers of hope only to take it away in the most drastic of fashions and by using a lot of typical ingredients used in these sorts of films they manage to create something quite new and fresh.

It Could Be Stronger

The films downfall comes when you find it hard to really care about many of the characters. The writers didn't give enough time for the audience to connect with them, or purposely decided not to get close to them. Whether this was a mistake in the writing or purposely done so that the audience would see them simply as normal humans trying to survive is a mystery. In a way it works, but mostly it doesn't. The character you care about the most would probably be Terry, played by Donald Faison for the simple fact he's a familiar face. Eric Bulfour is a competent actor, but he's not a house hold name yet, so even though he puts in a solid performance, as a lead the audience might find it hard to connect with him.

Deserves More Credit

There's a lot of action to be seen in this film with an ending that is surprising and actually quite entertaining, although there's no real explanation for it and therefore leaves a lot of people annoyed. It was a nice attempt by The Brothers Strause (Colin and Greg) and their work with visual effects pays dividends here. The criticism for this film is a lot harsher than should be as it tries to go away from the constant re-hashed rubbish that we're used to seeing and it should be commended for this, but the characters needed to have a bit more to them.