Skyline Review
Tuesday, November 16. 2010
Like many people, I was intrigued by the trailers for Skyline when they first started appearing. Like far fewer people (judging by its box office take), I actually went to see it on opening weekend. And unlike nearly every critic who saw it, I actually enjoyed it.
Admittedly, most of the criticisms are fair: the main characters drifted somewhere between "unlikable" and "props"; the plot was a sketched outline at best; the lens flare was cranked enough to make Star Trek look like Batman Returns. So why did I like it? Maybe it's because I've seen enough truly bad movies to know that Skyline doesn't even rank in the bottom 100. Or maybe it's simply because I was watching it from a different point of view from those critics.
Several people have noted similarities to other films, and there are indeed a lot of familiar scenes here. A lot. So many, in fact, that it became the key difference between what I saw and what many of the critics saw. Independence Day, Transformers, The Matrix, The Terminator, District 9, Alien, Signs, War of the Worlds, and Starship Troopers were all visible at different times throughout the course of the movie. The result was more of a love letter to sci-fi films in general rather than a rip-off of any particular film. Yes, Skyline truly is a fan film. A bit bigger and better produced than what most others can manage, but a fan film nonetheless.
If this movie had been released online, the reception would have been completely different (as evidenced by the wide margin between critic and audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes). It is not a film for general audiences, and is not something to be taken too seriously or viewed too closely. It was created as a fun project, and should be viewed with the same "let's have fun at the movies" attitude. So go catch a matinee and enjoy yourself, and see how many sci-fi easter eggs you can find.
Collector/Modeler Interest:
Terry (Donald Faison of Scrubs fame) drives a Ferrari F430 Spyder, readily available as a 1/24 kit by Revell.
Admittedly, most of the criticisms are fair: the main characters drifted somewhere between "unlikable" and "props"; the plot was a sketched outline at best; the lens flare was cranked enough to make Star Trek look like Batman Returns. So why did I like it? Maybe it's because I've seen enough truly bad movies to know that Skyline doesn't even rank in the bottom 100. Or maybe it's simply because I was watching it from a different point of view from those critics.
Several people have noted similarities to other films, and there are indeed a lot of familiar scenes here. A lot. So many, in fact, that it became the key difference between what I saw and what many of the critics saw. Independence Day, Transformers, The Matrix, The Terminator, District 9, Alien, Signs, War of the Worlds, and Starship Troopers were all visible at different times throughout the course of the movie. The result was more of a love letter to sci-fi films in general rather than a rip-off of any particular film. Yes, Skyline truly is a fan film. A bit bigger and better produced than what most others can manage, but a fan film nonetheless.
If this movie had been released online, the reception would have been completely different (as evidenced by the wide margin between critic and audience reviews on Rotten Tomatoes). It is not a film for general audiences, and is not something to be taken too seriously or viewed too closely. It was created as a fun project, and should be viewed with the same "let's have fun at the movies" attitude. So go catch a matinee and enjoy yourself, and see how many sci-fi easter eggs you can find.
Collector/Modeler Interest:
Terry (Donald Faison of Scrubs fame) drives a Ferrari F430 Spyder, readily available as a 1/24 kit by Revell.
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