Film Review: Skyline

Skyline isn’t a perfect venture but in its attempt to marry large-scale feel with gritty human complexion, finds itself comfortably straddling the line between the two types of alien invasion films.

There is a difficult line to tread between the introspection and scale of the two kinds of alien invasion films. The first, the Cloverfield and District 9 kind, are often heavy on the socio-political undertones and focus more on a close-knit group of individuals who drive the narrative along. The second, Independence Day types, are more the global event; with stories that interweave characters, nations, and feel in every sense, scaled to be as massive as the galaxies it places us within.

The Brothers Strause (known more for their special effects work, music videos, and the less than stellar Alien Vs. Predator Requiem) weave their alien invasion paradigm somewhere between the two schools of thought. With a fairly limited budget of around $10-20million (with only $500,000 of it spent on physical production), one can see that it would be tough to compete with the grandeur of a Roland Emmerich flick. Yet the duo, along with writers Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell, do their damndest to stretch the boundaries of imagination with more than ample success. The difficult part is of course, when aliens invade, the entire world tends to know about it. So making a small slice of this pandemic work is no easy task. If Cloverfield was Blair Witch, then Skyline is your Paranormal Activity of alien invasion films.

Skyline focuses on a small group of the young and beautiful as they deal with the global alien attack. Led by Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson), they find themselves trapped in a skyrise Los Angeles apartment alongside their friends as they fight for survival against an unknown alien entity that appear to feed off the human brain. But unlike Independence Day, we get to know very little about the humans. A light backstory has Balfour’s character visiting his good friend Terry (Donald Faison) while a seemingly interchangeable trio of beautiful female companions provides conflict within. The moral compass of the cast is strengthened by the hardnosed Oliver (Dexter’s David Zayas; the concierge of all people), who adds a sense of wisdom to the much younger cast’s angsty bravado. Some of the dialogue is painfully hokey but we do get pretty convincing performances from the entire cast. Balfour and Zayas carry their weight and would fit just as well in bigger productions of the same ilk.

We know even less about the aliens- other than the fact they’re quite tough to kill, large in number and have very keen hunting skills. They just show up and kill everyone, using light to attract the weakness in humans and consume in mass quantities. The Strause’s special effects history and work means that the actual design and finish of the aliens are really quite good, with a believable sense of purpose and scale.

The limited budget however, means that the breadth of the film suffers from severe claustrophobia. We are enclosed within, literally, the apartment building and the immediate surroundings- never really letting the atmosphere of the film breathe and expand. Instead, the vastly unused terrain of Los Angeles and its surrounding vistas are merely a distant backdrop, seen in brief montages during the air battle between the largely anonymous human armed forces and their galactic counterparts.

The most frustrating aspect of the film is that it only feels like its getting started as it closes. The last frames of the film finally give the audience a sense of ambition, but before we can get really excited at the potential of the unfolding narrative, the end credits roll. Skyline isn’t a perfect venture but in its attempt to marry large-scale feel with gritty human complexion, finds itself comfortably straddling the line between the two types of alien invasion films. The Brothers Strause are good at getting as much as they can from limited resources, and one can only deduce from the way Skyline ended, that the pair have much more up their sleeves.

SKYLINE
Directed by: The Brothers Strause
Written by: Joshua Cordes, Liam O'Donnell
Cast: Eric Balfour, David Zayas, Scottie Thompson, Brittany Daniel
Released by: Rogue Pictures / Relativity Media / Hopscotch