Before I go anywhere, I should first say that, for all its flaws, Skyline has done some good things visually with its teeny weenie budget. The effects work is terrific considering it cost only £10million to make, and the scale of the piece at times is impressive, again, due to the budget constraints. So, on a technical level at least, Skyline is impressive.
But that’s about all that’s impressive with it. The lack of budget really shows for most of the run time as z-grade TV actors spend most of their time hidden in one setting with all curtains and blinds closed. Given a better director, screenplay and cast, this could have been the anti-Independence Day: more of a psychological drama about those stuck in the middle of an alien invasion whilst the world crumbles around them. Yet the Brothers Strause are hacks at their very best and considering their previous film was one of the worst ever made (*cough* AvP: R *cough*), they have already proven that beyond effects work (they worked as effects boys on the likes of Avatar and Benjamin Button), they are completely inept at basic filmmaking. You know, “trivial” things like a decent script or good performances.
So here we’re “treated” to people we don’t care about screaming loudly about a situation we’re not invested in whilst the most interesting stuff takes place largely off screen. It’s transcends being merely derivative to blatantly mimicking bigger, better sci-fi movies and provides one of the single most laughable endings in years. Yes I admire what it’s done for the budget but as an exercise in doing scale on such tight fundage, it fails. But that’s what happens when directed by two talentless fuckwhitts.
And don’t even get me started on the nuke moment. Detonating a nuclear weapon some four miles away would not turn out to just be a minor inconvenience. Oddly, the talk of radioactive fallout occurs once. In passing. Fucking amateurs.
1.5/5
sweet.
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