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Skyline

Starring: Eric Balfour, Scottie Thompson, and Donald Faison
Directed by: Colin and Greg Strause
Written by: Joshua Cordes and Liam O'Donnell
My Rating: 1 star

     Don't look up.  Because if you do, you will probably want to turn away from the screen at the sight of this film.  In short, it's not too good.
     As strange lights are descending on Los Angeles, much of the city's population is drawn outside to observe thes lights when they are sucked up into the ships of an extra terrestrial civilization pursuing war against the human race.
     There are a few problems I have with this film.  There is only one emotion the directors manage to evoke in the viewers, awe at the sight of the effects.  While I think the effects are great, the directors fail to take a decent storyline and make it into an emotional roller coaster; they don't bring out emotions such as fear for the characters involved in the situation or the excitement of an adrenaline rush during an intense scene.  The storyline seems too short in order for the viewer to experience these emotions.  Although, there is a positive in this.  We don't get too attached to the characters.  But as one who enjoys character development and likes to get to know the characters better so that the story is better rounded, this is a negative.  All that is known about the characters is that two of them (Jarrod and Terry) are somehow associated with the film industry in Los Angeles.  But this is good that we don't know them so well so that if they were to die in the film, we wouldn't be too upset. 
     A positive of this movie is the special effects.  They are extremely awesome except for some of the explosions.  They didn't look as real as they could have.  The aliens as well as the alien ships are designed quite excellently.  The set design is not bad either. 
     My biggest problem with this film is that it does not seem as original as it should be.  It has a very similar storyline to that of "Independence Day" (1996) and it has a score that would fit well in the "Transformers" franchise.  The similarity with "Independence Day" is that the aliens show up one random day and start a war with the humans and events happen over three days and the aliens are defeated or leave.  In "Skyline" though fortunately, it is unknown what happens to the aliens at the end.  It also contains an epic score similar to that of the "Transformers" franchise. 
     Overall, this film deserves the poor ratings and reviews that it has received and mine is no different.

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