How dumb is Skyline?
Well, the Critics' Code of Ethics prevents me from revealing the dumbest of the dumb decisions behind this film, but the ending is one of the dumbest twist endings in Hollywood history. Seriously, it makes "The Village" look like freakin' "Seven."
The rest of the film manages to make alien invasions seem dull, handled with all the force and know-how of a school-board meeting. How is it that alien invaders have figured out this technology ages ahead of us but continue to be foiled by people doing things like uploading computer viruses or (in one of M. Night's other ludicrous twists) simply tossing a glass of water on them?
Neither of those things happen in "Skyline," of course, but this film's aliens have technology that allows them to suck hundreds upon thousands of humans into these giant spacecraft, but they haven't mastered something like thermal imaging, which our comparatively stone-age selves have sported for a couple of decades now.
So that makes it easy for people to hide from smaller alien scout craft by hiding behind doors or counters or their couch, or simply by drawing window shades.
And why, if they're just sucking the people out of the buildings to begin with, do they even need to send the scouts? Why not just keep sucking up the buildings?
But we're not supposed to think any of that is important. Eric Balfour ("The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remake) and Donald Faison (TV's "Scrubs") star. Faison is a douchebag L.A. hip-hop type who lives in the penthouse of a posh apartment building and wants to just be left alone to his life of partying with chicks in bikinis and listening to really loud music. Balfour is his best friend, in town visiting with hopes of launching a new career. Then, aliens come and screw everything up.
The super-bright blue lights their ships emanate have a hypnotic effect that also kind of messes up people's faces, acting like giant magnets that make their eyes white out and putting them in a trance that allows the poor schmucks to be sucked up into the ship, where they are devoured by these aliens.
The best things about this movie are the visual effects, which, for a film with a budget as low as this (reportedly $10 million), are a spectacular achievement. Perhaps that's all directors The Brothers Strause (a moniker which has to elicit a chuckle) were looking to achieve: to show that an effects extravaganza can be delivered on a shoestring budget. If that's so, consider "Skyline" a monumental achievement.
But also understand that's virtually all this film is: an effects reel. A demo for filmmakers. Why are we wasting our money on it?
There is a list of extras, including two commentary tracks, making-ofs, trailers, the Pocket BLU stuff. I couldn't even be bothered to sniff at any of it, so maybe it's spectacular stuff, but I kind of doubt it.
Film: 1.5 Yaps Extras: 3 Yaps