SKYLINE

SKYLINE (2010
U.S.
Directed by Colin and Greg Strause (as The Brothers Strause)

CAST:
Eric Balfour - Jarrod
Scottie Thompson - Elaine
Donald Faison - Terry

PLOT:
Jarrod and Elaine are invited to Los Angeles by Terry in hopes that Jarrod will help with a movie he's working on. During a party you find out that Elaine is pregnant and doesn't want to move and Jarrod is having cheating on his girlfriend. That same night after the party is over strange lights descend on the city. The light makes people entranced by it as if it's a light to a moth. Jarrod becomes entranced by it, and it seems as if his blood vessels are burning on the inside and his eyes turn full gray with no pupils. Jarrod almost goes into the light until Terry tackles him and his trance is broken. The next morning Jarrod and Terry go to find out what is going on and they see ships descend from the sky and start sucking up people. Elaine is entranced by the light at this point as well as Jarrod again, but Jarrod is somehow able to withstand the attraction to the light this time.

At this point everyone decides to try to make it to a yacht because they think that the aliens dislike water. It is during this time that Terry is eaten by one of the aliens and we see that the aliens can use human brains to repair their selves if they are hurt. The rest of the survivors decide it's better to stay indoors. The military  starts to attack the aliens with no luck including using a nuke on the biggest alien craft which has no luck as the ship is seen starting to repair itself almost right away and even more aliens are seen coming out of the craft.

Jarrod decides to try and make it to make it to a safer location one last time with Elaine and we find out that his strength has increased and that when angered he reverts to the way he looks when entranced by the aliens light.  As they get on the roof of Terry's penthouse suite a smaller alien starts chasing them and the people that stayed behind in Terr's apartment are killed by a bigger alien. Due to this Jarrod and Elaine decide to give up and accept their fate and go into the aliens light.

REVIEW:
Where to begin. I guess the best way to start is to say that the acting script was just kinda bland all the way around and the only character development takes place in the first 15 or so minutes of the movie. After that the characters don't evolve really and the story is only really kind to Balfour's Jarrod. Which isn't saying much considering that Jarrod is shown evolving physically but not mentally and even then it isn't explained why he's changing. But I will say that Balfour tries to make the best of his role as well as Thompson. It should be said that the writing after the alien lights start up is almost groan worthy in places. This is especially true for when David Zayas' Oliver shows up. Zayas' character has some of the worst lines in the movie and sometimes you can even guess what he's about to say before he says it sometimes.

The special effects on the other hand are quite good and work well in the movie. The aliens look like they have mass and depth to them and move quite well considering the budget the film had to spend on it. The alien design is almost has a mythos style look to them considering that they tower over everything, including the smaller aliens. Make no mistake though, the effects aren't nearly as good as Iron Man or District 9, but they are miles above what Sy Fy channels shows. The true wow of the movie comes toward the end when the action takes place on the roof tops and in the penthouse suite and "things blow up really good" literally as half the building is destroyed to stop a bigger alien as a smaller alien is chasing Jarrod and Elaine over the rooftop while an air skirmish is taking place. The sound design is also done quite well as this helps lend a hand to the size and scope of the aliens and also as buildings are run into or attacked by the bigger aliens. The only draw back to this is that the camera seems to either stay in one place for two long or moves at odd times just to move right back to where it was a second before.

I must say one thing about this movie though. The end of the movie actually made me happy. It's not often you see the antagonists win in a movie. Even though this goes with out saying, if a different life form comes from a distant planet, they without a doubt has the means to wipe out Earth. And no, a computer virus wouldn't be enough to stop an invasion on a mass scale from E.T. and his friends. We would be fucked even if we did use nukes to try and stop them. Better tech would equal a quicker win. Another thing toward the end that got me giddy, is that we actually get to see inside the alien craft. I won't go past saying that except that's pretty awsome. But once the aliens eat a certain brain inside the ship it just goes downhill from there again. Way to ruin a ending that was looking like it would have been the best part of the movie.

I would say that you shouldn't hurry to watch this movie. It's basically ID 4, just with a lot more head popping and brain eating. This movie is a pure fireworks show that has little plot and when there is, there's just to many unanswered questions and bad writing for me to truly like this move, even though it looks good and sounds good. Just where is the brain in it.

BEST DEATH:
This would have to be when the first brain is taken because you're not expecting it and you hear a kinda pop when the persons head is removed.

BEST LINE:
I can't really say there is one....sorry!

FUN FACTS:
The Brothers Strause have said that this movie is only part of a story and they're planning to use their own money to make the next one.

Most of the movie was shot in Greg Strause's condo.

Sony is contemplating legal action against the Strause brothers due to the fact that they are also working on the effects for BATTLE: LOS ANGELES. Sony Pictures didn't know they were working on SKYLINE at the same which comes out 4 months ealier.