Skyline (2010)

After District 9 and Monsters, Skyline is the next movie that has been made for a relatively low-budget (about 11 million, most of it spent on the special effects) and has been made almost independently from a big studio by some special effects experts.

Is Skyline the next District 9 or does this movie disappoint, just like Monsters did?

Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and Elaine (Scottie Thompson) travel to Los Angeles to meet up with Terry (Donald Faison), an old friend of Jarrod, as it is his birthday. The party is fun, but the next day they are awoken by bright blue lights. It is the start of a very long day. It doesn’t take long before it becomes clear what these blue lights are and that the city is under attack by aliens.

There are a lot of similarities between Skyline and Cloverfield. In both of them the city is under attack and we follow a small group of people. Skyline doesn’t use a handheld camera that is carried around by the actors though and further comparisons really can’t be made as the movie does not venture into the city. Most of it is shot in one location, the apartment of one of the directors. It seems they didn’t have any budget to shoot somewhere else. It results in a lot of discussion about whether or not they should leave the apartment, their attempt to do so and some drama about their personal relationships.

Not enough time is spent on the characters, which results in very little information about them. You can summarise them like this: One is succesful, but lies a lot, one of them is pregnant, one doesn’t know what he wants in his life and one is the apartment manager, that’s about it. I did not care about any of the characters, which resulted in me not caring much about what happened to them. Because of this you won’t be on the edge of your seat, even when the aliens are near the apartment. The effects look great for the budget, but because the script just isn’t very good it feels like a B-movie (think something like Mega Shark vs. Crocosaurus.)

The end of the story was unexpected (and not in a good way) and has a scene where color plays a very important role. If you see it yourself (I suggest you don’t) you would ask yourself why something has to be a different color, you will also laugh about the reaction of one of the characters. Skyline is no District 9 and I really wouldn’t recommend it. There will be a sequel, which I’m sure I’m going to skip.

Score: 3