Skyline (2010)

Spoilers and all that...

I like the observation that the alien "suit" for lack of a better word must have a will of its own. Or, at least, it must have some sort of software that "wipes" the brain and installs some new goal or set of motivations. That second interpretation is what I lean towards.

Actually, the end makes me wonder if they're aliens at all. While there was certainly a biological component to some of them, they still just seemed to be bio-machines. I guessed the rough nature of the ending about 30-35 minutes in, because I noticed we hadn't yet see what the aliens "really" looked like, and I figured the most likely reason for this was that their real nature was the point of the obfuscation. And since their whole bag is abducting people, I assumed we'd find out in the end that the "aliens" inside the bio-machines were just people. It would've made for quite a dramatic reveal for Jerry to bust something open only to find his best friend in there.

But anyway, I'm pretty sure this species is not a species at all: it's just the Borg. They take existing intelligence, override it, and move on, consuming and devouring mindlessly. I rather like to think that there are all sorts of other species' brains running those things elsewhere, from previously conquered races.

That said, it's dumb that his brain glows a different color. I can go along with it in a thematic or symbolic sort of way, but I think it would've been sufficient to just have overtake it.

Speaking of which, though: why is he special? He didn't seem especially willful or strong or what have you. I guess that's going to be addressed in the sequel the creators say they had planned from the beginning.

Terrible flick that borrows too heavily from every other sci/fi flick out there. The aliens look like the martians from Independence Day, the spaceships look like the sentinels from The Matrix and the giant monster aliens look like they came right out of Starship Troopers. Does this movie do anything original? It was marketed as a big tent pole blockbuster film, but in reality it's a low budget flick disguised as a blockbuster.

I give credit the the directors, who financed the film themselves and did the special effects. Most of the budget....okay, 95% of the budget went towards the special effects. Next time, they need to write a good script and then do a second and third draft of it before they get all excited at what their imagination can cook up on a computer. Filmmaking is about story, if you have a good story, chances are you have a good film. If you have a film with a crappy story, but great special effects, chances are your film is still going to be crappy. The brothers were too focused on showing off their talent on their own terms that they forgot that movies are meant to be enjoyed.

Skyline is crappy.

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Suspect's Reviews

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I thought that Skyline was pretty poor to be honest and I just didn't get the ending. Either that or I fell asleep. LOL. Thought it was overhyped and the story was minimal at best. Good CGI however.

Just watched Skyline and have to say it was not a bad watch for a Sunday night film. I hadn't watched it because the bad reviews it got, example imdb with the 4.4/10 rating. A mean the acting wasn't the best but the effects where good and the storyline was good for an alien invasion film. I also liked the ending just when you though there was no hope for mankind, bang a wee twist in it for you.
What do you think of this film?

I enjoyed it, nothing amazing but not as bad as people made it out to be. I prefer it to the disappointing Battle: Los Angeles that came out around the same time.

Battle: Los Angeles was quite weak indeed. Haven't watched Skyline and don't plan to watch it soon.

I enjoyed it, wasnt amazing but its worth a watch. The visuals are great and the acting is also good. The visuals are very much the same as Battle:Los Angeles, could be the same visual company.

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One of the worst films I've seen.

^n3wt is right though, it's the same company that did the effects on both Battle and Skyline. Sony Pictures (the guys behind Battle) even tried to sue because The Brothers Strause didn't tell them they were working on Skyline and were possibly using the same equipment that was used on Battle Los Angeles.


Neither film is worth watch tbh but Skyline just reminded me of every other sci-fi movie of the past 300 years... it's that much of a rip off.

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Now I feel I need to watch it.

It's basically a bunch of Paris Hilton types who fight and argue while Nukes go off over American soil within minutes of the Aliens arriving.

Meh, I am tired of watching good movies. A bad movie also has the social function of making good movies look ever better through contrast.

For instance, I wouldn't have liked Spirited Away so much if I didn't watch the mediocre Unstoppable in the same day.

Here's my review from my thread...












When hypnotic blue lights appear over Los Angeles, a small group of 30-somethings have to hide and run from what appears to be an alien invasion.
When it transpires that the aliens are an almost all powerful force... the survivors must find a new way of escaping this new threat to humanity.


Bit of an odd one this. What could have been great, sadly is just a badly written and acted bog standard alien sci-fi film.

Plus there are piles and piles of reused/stolen ideas from other sci-fi films, books and stories, just packaged in new effects blankets...

... there's been many references from other Critics etc, to Transformers, Cloverfield and Independence Day...

... but I spotted ideas from Spielberg's War Of The Worlds, The Matrix Trilogy, Terminator Salvation and District 9...
Even the brain removal thing reminded me of Starship Troopers.

Bad form.


The general character writing is poor too. There's little to keep the attention of the viewer, the characters involved are written so one dimensionally that they came across to me as just shallow, money-oriented It People... basically the kind of people that everyone hates.

Even the scripting and dialogue is poorly written. The various arguments between the main couple of characters and their reasons for arguing are laughable. Shall we stay, shall we run kinda arguments and it's all so completely unrealistic, it becomes unintentionally funny.


The storyline and general plot are, basically, all based around what can be achieved with CGI... and like I said, if you've seen any of the films I mentioned above, you've seen it all before. I mean, even Transformers had a better plotline tbh...
There's also pretty bad writing throughout in terms of Humanity's reactions to the alien invasion...

... when the aliens attack, the military sees fit to immediately use Nukes... I mean, really? So soon? Without enough time to deliberate whether or not they should be used over American soil?

Come on... really?


As for the acting.
The best on show is Eric Balfour... he holds the role together well and seems comfortable in the action... but he does slip from time to time and seems out of his depth when he has to actually act tough.

Backup comes from Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel, David Zayas, Crystal Reed, Neil Hopkins and Donald "Scrubs" Faison.

All of whom are pretty wooden throughout and recite their lines as if they haven't had enough time to rehearse them... even Faison, an actor I like, is completely off form and wooden.


The effects are top notch though. They're extremely well rendered and realistic. They're also highly stylised...

However, sadly, with most of the effects shots looking like something stolen from Transformers, Cloverfield, Independence Day, Spielberg's War Of The Worlds, The Matrix Trilogy, Terminator Salvation and District 9 and Starship Troopers, it makes the whole film just feel cheap.

Whoa. It must really stink.

7%? Damn!

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Yep, it blows. The people are annoying, their dialogue is dull, the CGI alien stuff all looks derivative of other movies, there's really no story to it since it's a bunch of shallow nobodies doing very little until the set-up for Skyline 2, and so it all drags on and on because you're stuck watching poor performances by actors playing poorly written characters reciting poorly written dialogue.

It looks kinda pretty. And the ending is kinda interesting. That's about it.

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That's for the effects only... 7 out of 10. If they had utilised the effects better, it would have scored 10 out of 10... making it 10%

The rest of the film... writing, acting, casting, plot etc... is a solid 0% across the board. Pathetic film.

I forgot about the ending, that was pretty decent I thought.

Finished watching it, really awful, one of the worst movies I ever watched. wintertriangles was very generous giving 5.5, it's a or maybe movie across the board.