The Film
The Brothers Strause are a special effects dynamic duo. You've probably seen their work in music videos, commercials, and a little movie called Titanic. With all of that experience, you'd expect Skyline to be an explosion for your eyeballs. Instead, it's more like a lobotomy for your brain.
Skyline is the cheesy alien disaster film du jour. In fact, calling it that is an insult to cheesy alien disaster films. It's a mess that relies too much on special effects, cliches, and snippets from similar films -- and it's still not even close to a decent movie.
Jarrod (Eric Balfour) heads out to L.A. to party it up with former rap partner Terry (Donald Faison). As if pressures from his pal and impending fatherhood weren't enough, he also has to deal with pesky aliens. Man, those little dudes really know how to ruin a party! With girlfriends in tow, the gorgeous gaggle must stay alive (good luck with that!), all while dealing with a bit of twentysomething drama.
Yeah, OK. We don't necessarily require realism in our alien movies. However, we do appreciate some nice special effects. In other words, if you're going to throw the rest of the movie out the window, at least make it look cool. Skyline does a passable job in that department, but barely. Also, the ending is incredibly bad. It almost seems cut off, as if they ran out of money or patience and said, "OK, enough!" Sadly, the abruptness does leave a gaping hole for an unnecessary sequel.
The Picture
As viewers, we shouldn't expect too much out of Skyline. However, the one fallback is that this type of movie should have a killer image. This one is meh at best. There is a ton of darkness and a lot of shaky cam. Both are fine, but the detail really seems to suffer. Once the action heads outside, things perk up slightly, but get a little orange as well. In all fairness, the odd color palette could have been an alien thing. Either way, it's more than a little disappointing.
The Sound
The film's saving grace is its sound. Right off the bat, Skyline delivers some creepy audio, including a few nice thumps when the alien pods first make an appearance. Later, they upgrade to thunder-like noises and the whizzing of little alien aircraft. When the movie isn't boasting special effects, the DTS-HD Master Audio track is filling the surrounds with a poppy pop soundtrack. Overall, it's a nice audio track, which also includes plenty of immersive ambient sounds, most notably during a party scene and in the garage.
The Extras
The big draw here are the two commentaries, one of which features the Brothers Strause going into intricate detail, mostly about the film's special effects. Well, that's their thing! Other extras include deleted and alternate scenes, as well as an in-depth look at two scenes in the movie. Really though, hasn't this film tortured you enough?
Final Thoughts
Skyline is unbelievably bad. It's so bad that you actually feel worse for the characters who don't die off early in the movie than for those who meet an early demise. The film seems to rely completely on special effects, but can't deliver enough to make this worth your time. On a positive note, it's only 94 minutes long -- and you should be thankful for that.
Product Details
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