Skyline (2010)
Directed by Colin Strause
When strange lights descend on the city of Los Angeles, people are drawn outside like moths to a flame where an extraterrestrial force threatens to swallow the entire human population off the face of the Earth. Now the band of survivors must fight for their lives as the world unravels around them.
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3 films that influenced Skyline
What critics say influenced Skyline
Their designs are suspiciously reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” with wide shots of monster rampage clearly ripped from “Cloverfield.”
"Skyline" comes nowhere close to the respective heights of 2005's " War of the Worlds " or 2008's " Cloverfield ," both near the top of their respective subgenre, but it's also certainly better than a shoddy disaster like 2007's " Dragon Wars ," Individual visuals, usually of an uneven CG persuasion, are the bread and butter of directors Colin and Greg Strause.
You could try the War of the Worlds or the Independence Day angle; the Cloverfield or District 9 approach; or you could just do what the creators of Skyline did: sample every single "alien invasion" flick imaginable.
Whether the Strauses are capable to spinning a yarn with the same enthusiasm and obvious care they bring to their CGI handiwork is anyone’s guess, but here they are spinning their wheels with a cynical mash-up of ideas more imaginatively explored in various incarnations of H.G. Wells’ War of the Worlds and last year’s District 9 .
What follows are the usual protocols and stereotypes found in the Alien Invasion sub-genre ( War of the Worlds is especially tapped dry), as well as some unintentionally laughable new elements that are unforgettable for all of the wrong reasons.
These dilemmas are so woodenly scripted and amateurishly performed that they play like parodies of disaster-movie dramas, though they're no more unimaginative than the run-of-the-mill aliens themselves, biomechanical squid-like creatures with probing tentacles reminiscent of those possessed by War of the Worlds 's extra-terrestrials.
You could try the War of the Worlds or the Independence Day angle; the Cloverfield or District 9 approach; or you could just do what the creators of Skyline did: sample every single "alien invasion" flick imaginable.
Imagine a Kmart mash-up of "Transformers" and "Independence Day" and you're appropriately primed for "Skyline," an underwhelming and derivative sci-fi thriller that's only marginally more impressive than a run-of-the-mill SyFy Channel telepic.
Despite borrowing liberally from previous hits like "Independence Day," "War of the Worlds" and " District 9 ," the not-screened for-critics " Skyline " takes the crown from 2003's "Dreamcatcher" in a stunning display of laziness, dull special effects and deadly pacing.
Yet here's "Skyline," a "Cloverfield" -meets-"Independence Day" dud with laughable early-'90s technology and an even more laughable screenplay (written by some other visual-effects guys).
I mean, that is quite literally what the movie looks and feels like: dramatic and sometimes original designs of alien ships and alien creatures and one clever visual riff on Independence Day, but no measurable story and no genuine characters to care about, even in a tiny sense.
Yet here's "Skyline," a "Cloverfield" -meets-"Independence Day" dud with laughable early-'90s technology and an even more laughable screenplay (written by some other visual-effects guys).
Their designs are suspiciously reminiscent of Steven Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds” with wide shots of monster rampage clearly ripped from “Cloverfield.”
It’s Cloverfield without the multiple-camcorder hook, stocked with good-looking D-list actors who are generally sixth- or seventh-billed in TV shows.
It's an interesting conceit and it has been used to good effect in films like Cloverfield and Monsters .
“Skyline” is a riff on the “Cloverfield” experience, only without the found footage approach and chained to a smaller budget to keep the money shots within reason.
The premise of this low-budget sci-fi thriller might be familiar from Signs, War of the Worlds, and Cloverfield, but the lesser acting talent is more in line with Plan 9 from Outer Space.