Saturday, March 12, 2011

Skyline is the Cheesiest, Most Predictable Movie EVAR!!

Hey all,

I made the poor decision to watch Skyline last night.  There was absolutely nothing special.  From the get-go, I knew the ending.  As the movie progressed, my predictions were confirmed, and the ending came and went seamlessly.

Skyline is a sci-fi thriller taking place in New York City.  One momentous day, an alien infestation storms the city and kidnaps people who, we later find out, fuel the aliens.  Classically, there are 4 survivors, who later meet-up with a couple more people in an apartment.  Following Jurassic Park, they get picked off one by one leaving only the two lovers alive.  It's all very quaint.

I leave out the "twist" at the end, because it's something you should be able to figure out ten minutes into the film. 

I suppose I'll say one good thing before giving out the verdict.  There were actually plenty of cinematic symbols I rather enjoyed.  The following lines may "spoil" the repugnant movie but I'm sure you'll live.  The tentacle-aliens live by feeding off of human brains.  The shape of the head looks suspiciously familiar to female genitalia.  The twist is that the creature lives when a brain is thrust into the structure and dies when organs are pulled out, as is shown in one of the last scenes.

Another profound symbol is that of water.  Most movies use water to show baptism or some type of change.  In this movie, it's surprising to see that the protagonist persistently wants to go to the harbor but never reaches that place (and he eventually gets harvested, oops, spoiler alert).  The aliens, on the other hand, never touch the water and use it only to dispose of carcasses.  It actually goes further.  When the protagonist is harvested, his brain travels through something resembling a water-filled fallopian tube.  Essentially, the protagonist reaches water, and that's where the end scene starts to get "interesting."

The cinematography wasn't anything special, and the sound mixing was decent.

With it's continuity goofs, and various plot flaws, this thriller is possible the most opiate film I've ever seen.  The ending was too story book and took ten minutes to execute when thirty seconds would have been sufficient.  Having a B-grade line of actors and a C-grade plot, I can only give this film a

C+

Thanks for reading,
cyoubx