woopak_the_thrill
"Prepare To be Harvested...Resistance Is Stupid."
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A 2010 alien invasion film directed by Greg Strause.
< read all 10 reviewsPrepare To be Harvested...Resistance Is Stupid.
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Nov 12, 2010
- by woopak_the_thrill
- posted in Movie Hype
Rating:
Alien invasion movies; gosh, these films are a dime-a-dozen. When I saw the trailer for Strause Brothers’ latest alien invasion flick “SKYLINE“, I admit, I was intrigued. I thought perhaps we are finally going to get a flick that can “go there” when it came to the darkness of such a premise. Well, I wasn’t that impressed with “Alien Vs. Predator: Requiem” but hey, I respected it; the Strause brothers displayed their talent in making a low-budget monster feature. I was hoping for something that would abandon the usual staples of such invasion movies. Well, they did try to do something different but along the way, I wonder what happened….
+2
Jarrod and Elaine (Eric Balfour and Scottie Thompson respectively) head out to Los Angeles to visit Terry (Donald Faison) an old friend who had made it big in the Hip Hop world. The two are immediately impressed by their reception and the place that music had built and after a night of partying, Jarrod is offered an opportunity that seemed to complicate Elaine’s apparent pregnancy. The next morning at around 4 am, the group is awakened by strange lights that seem to bathe L.A.; what they find are the advance of an alien invasion. Jarrod and Elaine must do their best to stay alive within the confines of this luxury condominium as they watch the aliens use their ships and intimidating white light to coax their victims into giving in….humans are being harvested and what may wait is something very horrible.
The script by Joshua Cordes and Liam O’Donnell is very flimsy, but it does try to do something different with the alien invasion theme. There is scenes of government and military planning and they keep the confines of the action within the eyes of a small group of people stuck in a building. What results is a more fearful situation that may indeed mimic the qualities of a horror film. The cast sees the event through the use of a telescope as they try to plan their next move. Many would associate the film’s themes to the movie “Cloverfield”, only instead of a monster wreaking havoc, it is a bunch of aliens running around looking for humans to harvest. The direction does keep things tight and quick, to keep the viewer from picking on its plot missteps. These missteps are what brought about the movie’s ruin as devices are introduced and events have transpired without definition, while viewers are left to simply buy into what the film feeds the senses.
I guess the main key to the film are the aliens themselves and their characteristics seem to have been inspired by “Independence Day” and Spielberg’s “War of the Worlds”. For some reason the aliens had both sentient-organic and machine-like qualities. Their bodies appear to be organic and enhanced with machinery. The mother ship almost gives off a hint of sentience and even has the capacity to heal itself even after a nuclear attack (the way the film replicates the effects of a nuke is pretty clumsy). It does start off with some feelings of suspense but it later begins to implode as the viewer becomes engulfed in a sea of heavy-handed scenes that were meant to be dramatic but ends up very funny (in a bad way). The characters are pretty stereotypical and I wasn’t exactly looking for anything special as long as I formed an attachment with them; instead the film was filled with cliches and even the female characters were none-essential save for Elaine; I knew it was only a matter of time before they were taken.
The visual effects are decent and the film does serve up a lot of explosions. There are some elements that I found interesting such as that giant monster and the dogfights were alright while it lasted. There is also a vagina-looking scout ship that I thought was an intended joke about Elaine’s pregnancy. The film is essentially a chase film as the direction seemed to put our characters in danger every 10 minutes or so. So what do these aliens want…they couldn’t have traveled thousands of miles just to drink up on human matter? Well, the film doesn’t exactly fill in that part of its mystery, it did answer that question but by that time, it was too late since no one seemed to care. The final scene was also quite unsatisfactory and attempts to get an exclamation point out of a human spirit.
The film promised an intended sequel as the ending lacked closure, and I guess this was the Strause brothers intentions. “Skyline” is a quick money grab, it wasn’t horrible but it would’ve been better if it had aired on the SY FY channel instead. Ok, Strause brothers, you had your fun. I guess that was part of the joke.
RENTAL for alien invasion fans and a skipper for everybody else. [2 Out of 5 Stars]
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More Skyline (2010 movie) reviews
review by Sharrie.
January 17, 2011
Look at the light and it controls you. The city is under attack by aliens. And it is GROSS! You’ve a replay of the ALIEN except that they now “reside” in the city and swallow up any human in their paths! Slimy king kongs, that’s what they are. It’s a movie that shows human misplaced trust in the unknown until they are proved otherwise. When under attack, the occupants in an L.A. apartment have only one choice, … more
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Half a star out of **** "Skyline" is what a casual movie-going audience would want to see out of an alien invasion flick, although it falls just a little bit short of the average film (of the like). However, with that being said, this means that it's hard to imagine that even the mindless monkeys who munch on this crap daily will be particularly impressed, and that's saying something. However, if you're a real movie-goer who doesn't want explosions and CGI in the place of … more
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Being one of those conspiracy guys who likes to look up at the night sky and wonder when the hell we're going to have an alien invasion, or at least be paid a visit, (we've been around for quite a while now, where's the planet warming present?) so this type of film would usually be right up my street. Naturally, the concept of a film crossing Independence Day with Cloverfield would be a good one, as we frequently get alien invasion films set on a larger scale, so the impact … more
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Its very rare for me to write a negative review usually i only feel its worth my time to review if i liked it and think others will enjoy it to, this however is an exception. After being told by several reliable sources that i would like this movie i watched it, it left me wondering where i go to file a petition to get the wasted time back. This movie stars off confusing and rushed from the start when are leading happy couple make a trip to LA to celebrate the birthday of a friend who has made it … more
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There is something about films that just suck the life right out of you. No I do not mean that because I went to an 11pm screening, I mean it literally sucked the life out of me. The monster child of Colin and Greg Strause takes all that was great about Independence Day, Cloverfield, and District 9 and gives you a crack baby called Skyline. I'm sure they will make their money many times over since this film was shot on the "measly" budget of $1m, but … more
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You no longer need a screenplay to make an alien invasion movie. All you need is a special effects studio, a lot of computers, and creature designers that go for all the reliable hallmarks, like flailing tentacles. You also need plenty of death and destruction, and it must all be contained within the borders of a major city - say Los Angeles or New York, because God knows an alien species prefers them to cities like Pittsburg or Chicago or Seattle or Cleveland. Scenes like that serve as a nice counterpoint … more
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There is no way on earth, a movie could fail in presentation like Skyline does. Originality is not even worth talking about since Independence Day or War of the Worlds are one of the many films this movie tried to copy. What the director did not understood is that you cannot steal ideas, concepts and give orders within the total chaos you have just created. This so-called "science-fiction" movie has no character development, matter of fact, it has no characters … more
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Quick Tip by woopak_the_thrill.
November 04, 2010
This movie appear to promise to be what the dumb film "Independence Day" should/could have been. The trailer promises earth-shattering battles and Greg Strause does know how to shoot battle scenes. It is his lack of stroytelling skills that worries me...I'll have to check this out to judge for myself. Added: I managed to see it and posted this review. Better as a rental.
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About the reviewer
William (woopak_the_thrill)
Please "Like" Film and Movies and Keep the Economy strong....LOL!! My Interests: Movies, Anime, History, Martial … more
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About this movie
PG-13
For sequences of intense sci-fi action and violence, some language and brief sexual content
Movies, Movie, Action, Science Fiction, In Theaters, Movie Hype, Alien Invasion, Alien Invasion Movie
Cast:
Eric Balfour,
Donald Faison
Director:
Greg Strause
Genre:
Fantasy,
Sci-Fi
Release Date:
November 12, 2010
MPAA Rating:
PG-13
Runtime:
92 minutes
Studio:
Universal Studios
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You're better off watching those other movies, but truthfully I am not exactly fond of Cloverfield. Check out my old review here. Admittedly that movie was the first time I saw Odette Yustman, so it did have its use.