Film Reviews

Skyline

• Rating:
• Director: Colin Strause
• Starring: Donald Faison
• Details: US/91mins 15A

A bit of an enigma this one; it's got Cloverfield style fingerprints all over it, but a complete lack of buzz to back up the comparisons - when you see it you begin to realise why. The Strause Brothers' other gig involves being special effects experts and, by all accounts, they're very good at it; the visuals here are easily the films strongpoint - but they still haven't figured out how to play characters off each other in a believable way since the atrocious Alien Vs Predator: Requiem.
Eric Balfour is a New Yorker who heads to LA to hook up with his now loaded best mate on his birthday. Taking his missus along with him, they all hit the penthouse for a night of boozy fun, but are shocked when they wake up to a full blown alien invasion. Trying to figure out whether or not to stay in the skyscraper or make a run for the sea (where the aliens don't seem to be frequenting), tensions run high as the group see thousands of people being slaughtered in front of their eyes.
Skyline doesn't attempt to work handheld camera angles, instead trying to make the film feel big in scope, but within a relatively intimate setting. If the filmmakers had stuck to their intriguing sounding Signs-like concept of having the world end around them from an actually smart perspective (a skyscraper) that still allows for money shots galore, then it may have worked a lot better. They don't commit to a style of execution, tone, or setting, and the film is all over the shop as a result. The Strause siblings gave themselves all the tools they needed to deliver the scale and wring the tension, but they continually drop the ball - epically so in the final few scenes.
The core of any good monster movie should be characters you care about. If you're left waiting on the next death scene, however slickly executed, then chances are the filmmakers didn't do a good enough job setting up, and exploring their players. Skyline has too much going on for it to concentrate on anyone properly, and the barely recognisable cast struggle to register, never mind impress. It's a shame, Faison in particular was a lot of fun in Scrubs.
One or two decent effects aside, Skyline feels a bit like one of the shoddy Matrix sequels crossed with The Mist, and is just as incoherent as that sounds.

Review by Mike Sheridan