Skyline Trailer

[Srelex]

Meh, I actually liked Cloverfield. I'll give this film a go, as it's been a while since we've had an alien invasion flick.

[Guardsman Bass]

Spoiler

4chan is saying that the aliens are harvesting "a rare protein" in human brains or something. The signal was apparently sent a few months before the events of the film, no mention of stl/ftl.

Spoiler

There were some people over at IMDB saying that the aliens were harvesting people for brains and spinal cords to insert into their machine bodies. They were saying it ends with the main protagonist getting this treatment, keeping his memories (unlike everybody else), then attacking the alien that's after his girlfriend.

[Zor]

There is something i dislike about the aliens, the fact that (at least some of them) they look like the bastard offspring of Srcin and Chimeras is only a part of it. I am not the biggest fan of the whole technogranic thing at the best of times, but something about them gets to me. Praticularly the fact that they can re-assemble themselves without so much as a seem instantly.

Also, their is an issue which is bloody easy to solve towards the midpoint. Go into the middle of the building and wait it out, and pillage the other rooms while your at it. You compromise your visiability a bit, but then again you also have much more material to hide you than a set of blinds from these non anthropomorphic Cybermen.

I also found the party scene to be the height of pointlesses.

Zor

[Bob the Gunslinger]

So the Cyberman spoilers are accurate?

[Drone]

It was just boring. The movie seemed to stop halfway through whatever plot seemed to be developing.

[Sarevok]

As I said before this movie was done before in a videogame format. It was better because it had nanosuits and north koreans.

[Zor]

So the Cyberman spoilers are accurate?

Yes.

Zor

[Chris OFarrell]

Saw it today with Vymp, I'd give it 5/10.

Its really let down by the plot and pacing. It invests a whole crapload of time in character development that comes to nothing at all (and when they try to make it come to something, it comes off as horribly lame and forced, such as the fact that one main character was having an affair and is used to create 'tension', aka 'absurd stupidity in the middle of an invasion') and takes WAY too long to get going.

There are SOME good bits, the drone attack was quite cool given the budget they had to work with (yay, more Predators with jet engines, and now with air to air missiles!) as was the nuclear strike on the alien ship, but for the most part, the military involvement was rather 'yawn' and just made me keep asking questions. They fire one nukes that cripples a ship, then they just watch as it is slowly repaired on the ground and rebuilt, rather then nuking the f*#( out of it several more times? They send in drones at first, presumably because they can't risk pilots being zapped by the blue light, but they send in fighters later anyway? There is a whole navy task group sitting just off the coast for some reason, and they all die offscreen because clearly that wouldn't be cool.

Anyway, I could go on for a lot longer, but we don't need to do. The movie takes too long to get started (WTF was the point of that stupid scrapbook?), starts to get interesting, and then suddenly ends with 'Oh humanity is dead, now back to the ripping out of our brains into the aliens for some reason, then we'll end it with the hero guys brain taking over the alien and standing over his girl as the aliens round on him looking pissed?)

What...the...fuck? Its almost schizophrenic, it starts off trying to be Cloverfield/Blair Witch, then goes to ID4, then they realize the movie is over, so they'll just write that we all die and the end.


As I said, its a decent film for a single viewing, especially for the drone/nuke sequence, and the apartment manager who was the only fucking one with his head screwed on straight ("No, I'm gona try going for a boat again! I'm sure to outrun these damn alien spaceships in a speedboat! Yeah! Oh no wait, this sniper team clearly has nothing better to do then to call a personal chopper ride for me because I'm fucking AWESOME!") and at least he went out with a bang, albeit one that was far too dragged out.

But its really not all that. I have some higher hopes for this other LA film.

[Vympel]

^What Chris said. A lot of time that the movie didn't have really was wasted on preliminary character matters that didn't really inform the rest of the movie, and Detective Batista from Dexter was the only entertaining character

[Kamakazie Sith]

Chris pretty much articulated everything that I was too lazy to do.

I was really disappointed with the showing from the military. They did some cool things, and I got excited when I saw that there was a Carrier Battle Group off the cost, but we just get an Air to Air melee instead of maybe something more realistic like the CVBG launching its attack from beyond visual range utilizing aircraft and/or their own missiles or maybe another nuclear strike from the CVBG.

This movie had a chance to really show what the reaction from a alien invasion of a superior force might actually look like and I thought we were going to see that when the drone/nuke attack happened because it looked like they were testing the capabilities of the aliens.

I did like that the aliens won. They still could have done that and gave us a true fight to death from the human race. I think it would have been cool to have a scene where after the CVBG was destroyed someone down in NORAD launches a full release as a final fuck you from the human race.

[Crazedwraith]

Any interest I had in this movie was killed when I saw it was done by the same people as AVP:R. Sounds like it has a lot of the same problems.

[Gil Hamilton]

I did like that the aliens won. They still could have done that and gave us a true fight to death from the human race. I think it would have been cool to have a scene where after the CVBG was destroyed someone down in NORAD launches a full release as a final fuck you from the human race.

I understand that the aliens haven't won yet. They went into the movie with the idea they were going to make sequels to it, so what you got in Skyline was just the first part.


I haven't dished out the movie to see it, mostly because we are broke at the moment and also lack of interest from the fiance, but from the interviews, it sounds like a pretty crappy movie. All the things the directors were really excited about, like the aliens all being biotech rather than having metal ships complete with them stringing science words together without giving a shit about what they were saying, had my eyes rolling out of my sockets. I'll wait for it to hit Netflix.

[Whiplash]

Whether it sucked or not, it is impressive that they made this for $10 million.

[Bladed_Crescent]

Its really let down by the plot and pacing. It invests a whole crapload of time in character development that comes to nothing at all (and when they try to make it come to something, it comes off as horribly lame and forced, such as the fact that one main character was having an affair and is used to create 'tension', aka 'absurd stupidity in the middle of an invasion') and takes WAY too long to get going.

This is true; and the double take at the beginning followed immediately by the "15 hours earlier" bit was completely unnessecary. I would have just started at the plane ride, since we gained nothing from the intro bit except 'something's going to happen'. Yes, well, we knew that going in. Please don't waste time with redundancies like this.

There are SOME good bits, the drone attack was quite cool given the budget they had to work with (yay, more Predators with jet engines, and now with air to air missiles!) as was the nuclear strike on the alien ship, but for the most part, the military involvement was rather 'yawn' and just made me keep asking questions. They fire one nukes that cripples a ship, then they just watch as it is slowly repaired on the ground and rebuilt, rather then nuking the f*#( out of it several more times?

Actually, I assumed from the get-go that the naval force's arrival and aerial battle was specifically to take out the regenerating ship - if you notice before the nuke attack, there's several ships over LA. Afterwards, there was just the one trying to heal. Presumably the military didn't expect to have to finish the job (maybe they'd used nukes to greater success elsewhere and then, 'oh shit, one of the LA ships is still alive and we've already committed a nuke strike against somewhere else, quick get in there and kill it). As well, depending on the intelligence available (did they still have satellites, were there spotters on the ground) they might not have known the LA ship survived for some time, meaning that the task force, expecting to clean up and secure the city, now had to take the ship out.

Just my take on it.

They send in drones at first, presumably because they can't risk pilots being zapped by the blue light, but they send in fighters later anyway?

My guess? They ran out of drones. If the entire continental US was under attack, you'd only have so many assets to go around - sooner or later, you'd have to send in the fighters just because there's nothing else available. And if you have a carrier group available, might as well use what they've got...

There is a whole navy task group sitting just off the coast for some reason, and they all die offscreen because clearly that wouldn't be cool.

I liked it this way. It wasn't as cool, but (in my opinion) the understatement of the task group's destruction was a lot more effective than whizz-bang-boom special effects and pew-pews.

It starts off so hopeful, with the fighters burning the aliens from the sky, a massive fleet sitting in the harbour, more than a match for poor Enterprise the regenerating ship and then as the day goes on, there are fewer and fewer fighters left and as the camera pans, you see the burning remains of the fleet. It really sells the hopelessness of the ending. Much better, in my view, than a lot of explosions and screaming sailors.

The movie takes too long to get started

Oh, agreed. I guess if they intended/will do sequels, that development may be useful... somehow. I guess. but as the movie stands, it was really unnecessary. Like the fighting between Candice and Photo Girl. Oops, now she's dead and so is the guy you both banged. Wasn't that plot fun?

...fuck was that about?!

(WTF was the point of that stupid scrapbook?)

It shows a) Jared is an artist, establishing his background, b) provides quick look into his character: he's excited about meeting his friend. It was only in there for about thirty seconds in the beginning and then when he's guilting over Terence (Terry?) being taken, to reinforce the 'he feels bad' without spending a lot of character interaction on it.

Anyways, bottom line: I found Skyline enjoyable. Not awful, but not orgasmically good, either. (well... maybe for the drone and bomber assault on the LA forces). Fun if you have some popcorn and a soft drink handy. However, for a product involving Brett Ratner, it was better than what I was expecting.

[Bob the Gunslinger]

I enjoyed the film. It's not brilliant, but it was as entertaining as you could expect from a sci-fi-invasion/horror movie. The characters were mostly dumb and boring, a result of their "common man's viewpoint" purpose in the film, but there was enough going on that it didn't bother me too much. The only thing that really got to me after a while was the main male actor's Keanu face. It didn't help that he was written as an idiot.

MILD SPOILERS

The special effects were really enjoyable, especially for the budget. The only ways you could tell that the budget was as low as it was were the lack of multiple sets (it all happens in one building, really), the aerial shots of LA with the greenscreened smoke, and the filler drama ("You disgust me", etc.). The film was more subtle than I expected from the trailers (the use of drones, then fighters, then the burnt out carriers; the Cybermen traits of the aliens being shown and not explained through dialogue, etc.), but still dumb enough to be a mindless sci-fi fun fest. I like the portrayal of mankind as easy prey to such advanced aliens, as well as the portrayal of the aliens as something other than humanoid beings who pilot ships. The alien ship design was cool with me because it looked more like the work of Stephan Martiniere than Michael Bay.

The whole "braaaiiinnnssss" aspect of the aliens is as dumb as the Visitors needing our water, the Matrix needing our energy and the ID4 aliens needing our resources, so if those are deal-breakers for you you won't like this film.

[CDiehl]

They went into the movie with the idea they were going to make sequels to it, so what you got in Skyline was just the first part.

I tend to think of it as a gigantic commercial for the sequel, which is probably the movie they wanted to make. This movie only exists as a demo reel for the effects, and to set up a really simplistic backstory for the sequel. Considering this was made by people who worked on the special effects for Avatar, it doesn't surprise me. Cameron made two of the biggest movies of all time on the back of scripts slightly thicker than this, so they must have figured they could get a moderate success out of this one. It may not set a new record, but it could be successful enough to merit a sequel, which is, again, the movie they wanted to make.

[Gil Hamilton]

Yeah, seems like it. I think the directors wanted to do a movie about AFTER the Earth was conquered by aliens, but didn't want to merely rely on exposition to explain why the Earth is ruled by Galactic Space Squids who like eating human brains and why one of the Galactic Space Squids is actually a person defending a non-Squidded person. The guys who made the movie are all about doing alien themed special effects, so you can kind of see why they sort of phoned it in on this one. Doing a Post-Squiddening Earth is much more up their alley. That's not to say that the next movie probably won't suck balls too, of course.

[Zaune]

Here's something to ponder. Shortly after watching this film (for all of £2.50; I might have mixed feelings about this town but the local cinema rocks), I rented Rampage on DVD from my local convenience store, without looking at the credits.
Do you want to know which film had more interesting characters and a better thought-out plot and premise?

[lance]

I also rented Rampage with out looking at the credits, so I'm going to say ...Skyline?

[Zaune]

I must respectfully disagree with you on that. I'm not saying Skyline didn't have some good moments, but I couldn't bring myself to care very much about any of the characters and the ending was just... FUBAR, frankly.

[Srelex]

Having watched the film, I agree; it did have some moments, but much of it could have been snipped out. I also think that the atmosphere would have been more effective had it not mostly taken place in broad daylight--but then again, the same people who did this make AVP2, which had the worst lighting in history.

It was still a change to have humanity get its face smashed against the curb, tho'.