Skylines

The third instalment of the Skyline series is not as bad or as great as some reviewers are saying. Some of the dialogue is pretty bad, but the acting is OK and the effects aren't terrible. You could watch a lot worse.

Well, the 2010 movie "Skyline" wasn't exactly the best of movies, though the 2017 sequel "Beyond Skyline" was a significant improvement on the 2010 movie, I must admit that I had mixed feelings about this 2020 movie "Skylines". Yet, of course I sat down to watch it, with it being a new movie that I hadn't already seen and all.

So how was "Skylines" from writer and director Liam O'Donnell and writer Matthew E. Chausse? Well, the movie was watchable that was for sure, but it was not an impressive movie. It felt like a mixture between the 2010 and 2017 movies, so it was a bland and mediocre result.

Visually then "Skylines" is phenomenal, and I must admit that I really liked the visual effects and CGI in the movie. But hey, such effects can only carry a movie so far. And when a movie is weighed down by a mundane and mediocre storyline, then it takes a lot for everything else to lift up the movie.

They had an adequate ensemble of actors and actresses on the cast list, with Lindsey Morgan in the lead role. The cast list also includes the likes of James Cosmo, Rhona Mitra and Yayan Ruhian. But for me it was definitely Daniel Bernhardt that carried the movie with his performance.

While I did sit through the entire movie and feeling sort of semi-adequately entertained, "Skylines" just didn't break any ground for action sci-fi movies, nor did it bring anything new to the genre. It was a watchable movie, certainly, but it was hardly an outstanding or memorable movie.

My rating of "Skylines" settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars.

It is what it is. A TV movie with a cast that act according to the budget and ability. A poor story and direction, It's too long so don't waste 2 hours.

It's fifteen years after the alien invasion and five years after the invasion fleet was destroyed. Rose Corley feels guilty for her failures despite being ultimately victorious. The new military tracks her down and recruits her on a dire mission to the aliens' home planet. The human Pilots are reverting back to their destructive alien self and they need a thingamajig from alienaplace to fix the thingamabob.

I am utterly surprised that this franchise seems to be going full bore. The original is not the worst start to a franchise but it is undoubtedly a B-movie. Its bigger world construction has issues. For an one-off movie, a lot of that can be overlooked. As the sequel shows, the franchise intends on building on that construction. This is the third movie in the series and it seems to be doubling down with a healthy budget. Quite frankly, it may serve the franchise to pull back to do a smaller story. Going to another planet is not a smaller story. It's a hard thing to pull off and the third act is a mess. The movie is split into two locations and neither is that compelling. The trailer park could be a good small B-movie but this one insists on doubling up. All of that is to find a stupid looking egg. It makes the movie look stupid.

I don't really remember the first two movies, but I know I liked them. I rated them both 8 stars. This, though, was so bad for so many reasons that I could barely watch it. Frank Grillo is out of this one, replaced with his daughter, played by Lindsey Morgan. Now she wasn't bad, but she wasn't great either. Add to the roster some known actors like Rhona Mitra, James Cosmo and Alexander Siddig, but only for a few badly acted scenes. Probably the only positive thing in the whole film was Daniel Bernhardt, who has a larger role, even if a cardboard character. At least he did some fight scenes and had some dialogue.

The worst thing is the characters. I couldn't care less about any of them. The most sympathetic character was probably the Matriarch, played by a guy, not confusing at all, and he/she/it is the bad alien boss! And the story was as lazy as the characters, telegraphing every "twist" that one could see coming for miles.

Bottom line: a really boring and pointless film. A shameful stain on the franchise, which is now pretty much defunct.