Keep Watching the Skies

"Skyline" is a riff on the "Cloverfield" experience, only without the found footage approach and produced on a smaller budget that keeps the FX within reason. It's basically the same premise: uncharismatic twentysomethings with insipid soap opera problems are faced with extraordinarily destructive extraterrestrial visitation, forced into escape attempts and survival mode while military forces assemble their pathetic efforts. Toss in ingredients pilfered from innumerable alien invasion features of similar ilk, and "Skyline" is one derivative motion picture that is unable to rise above its origins.

The film marks the return of Greg and Colin Strause to the directors chair, a few years after their disastrous turn at the helm of the Aliens vs. Predator franchise with the loathsome 2007 picture, Requiem. A major force in the special effects industry, they decided to play to their strengths for a follow-up, shunning Hollywood to make a low-budget creature feature on their own, allowing them to slash costs and dictate tone without studio interference. It's a laudable idea, yet the siblings fail to make a compelling thrill ride with this would-be franchise. The Brothers Strause have no sense of visual tension, trusting ineffective actors to communicate end of the world panic. Unfortunately this bland group is not up to the task. The siblings seek to amaze with their budget bonanza, staging flaccid action as the aliens chase the humans around the complex every 15 minutes or so, offering cheap thrills sans excitement. The CG elements are satisfying in a SyFy Channel sort of way, but the pursuit is drab, again requiring these unappealing actors to sell the enormity of the effects. A sense of grand scale just isn't there, and for a film like "Skyline", reminding the viewer they're watching a second-rate product isn't the brightest idea.