Skyline – The Movie Review

I have never been disappointed in Donald Faison in my life until now. Terry was a materalistic, womanizing jerk who didn’t care what anybody thought as long as his needs were served. Was I happy that he was eaten? Hell, yes. It was probably the most watchable part of the movie. I really bought the fear in his eyes and the desperation on his face. He didn’t want to be eaten; he wanted to be saved. It was very believable, and I loved every second of it.

The only reason that I wanted to see Skyline is because I was a preteen girl in the 90s. Why wouldn’t I want to see a movie that not only had Donald Faison from Clueless but also Brittany Daniel from Sweet Valley High? I figured that as a people vs. aliens type movie, it couldn’t be all that bad. I was way off.

Skyline drags on forever. I will say that I did enjoy the fact that it told most of the story without lots of dialogue – good use of a visual medium. That’s all that was really enjoyable about the movie, however. Half way through it, I just wanted everyone to die because I knew that’s where it was headed, and I was getting bored. I understand needing aliens to be tough, because otherwise the heroes have no conflict, but making them indestructible is just as boring in the opposite direction. Also, I don’t get why we’re automatically supposed to hate aliens in movies just because they’re aliens.

The protagonists of Skyline didn’t exactly have the best of traits, except for Jarrod who was insanely helpful, but we have to think the aliens are bad guys just because they’re aliens? Maybe they’re not aware that they’re being evil. Maybe they’re just hungry. I apologize for that tangent, but when you can’t support your protagonists, you tend to find a character you can identify with. We’ve all been hungry. I can understand being hungry. I can’t understand why I want unlikable characters to live.

When Skyline is done being boring, it goes on to make no sense. It’s an “everyone dies” type movie, but it decides it wants to keep going on. It does try to explain, I guess, why the aliens want the people – once again, they were hungry – but the movie could have ended way earlier. Maybe back when “everyone died.” That’s a logical ending. Of course, the movie was already dragging on for forever, so why not continue with that theme?

Jarrod is almost the only character in the movie that has anything resembling a good quality. He’s helpful. A lot of people are helpful, though, and that doesn’t mean they deserve to be saved. Eric Balfour’s performance is incredibly flat and not at all interesting. By the second time he was almost eaten, I wanted the aliens to finish him off already. Jarrod is willing to do anything to save Elaine, his pregnant girlfriend, but there was nothing about him that didn’t make me root for the aliens.

Elaine is the next character you’re supposed to want to live, because she’s pregnant. Of course, she wasn’t exactly excited about the news, so it’s a little bit hard to care. The thought that the baby could be humanity’s only hope did occur to me, but the fact that Elaine was almost eaten also made me think it was already mutated into an alien baby, so I just didn’t care. Scottie Thompson is good at crying on demand, but other than that, her performance wasn’t exciting.

I have never been disappointed in Donald Faison in my life until now. Terry was a materalistic, womanizing jerk who didn’t care what anybody thought as long as his needs were served. Was I happy that he was eaten? Hell, yes. It was probably the most watchable part of the movie. I really bought the fear in his eyes and the desperation on his face. He didn’t want to be eaten; he wanted to be saved. It was very believable, and I loved every second of it.

Of all the characters, I probably liked Candice best. Candice was Terry’s wife, and besides aliens chasing her, she found out her husband was cheating on her and saw him get eaten in front of her on the same day. That’s sad, and stressful. Candice pointed this out as she smoked a cigarette, but upon learning that Elaine was pregnant, she put that cigarette out. Candice was considerate of everybody. When Jarrod decided to try to escape with Elaine, Candice’s thought was that he was going to get Elaine killed. Brittany Daniel really sold all the turmoil Candice was going through, and she was the one character I really hoped would get away.

Overall, I would pass on Skyline. It’s just another alien movie with little motivation and no reason to like the protagonists. It’s completely boring, drags on forever, then goes on to make no sense.