Further thoughts on Skyline

First of all what was the point of this exercise? Aliens invasions don’t happen  - at least not yet and if you’re going to do an alien invasion film you need to put a little bit of thinking – not a whole lot, maybe an afternoon by the pools worth as to who are the aliens and what are they about –  the films answer was they have come from deep space to use our brains – the hell?

Sci-Fi needs a bit of metaphor of symbolism – otherwise it’s an empty display of special or not so special effects.  The most direct one is of being confronted with beings who are going to treat US the way we’ve treated well everybody – The original War of the Worlds vibrates with this idea. Also Aliens represent the unknown the beyond the vast sky above us  that can hold great promise – Star Trek comes to mind but also the threat of cosmic forces that can destroy us without even knowing our existence.

The wonder and the terror of the unknown – that’s what’s out there and a good film can touch on that– this film gave us people being sucked up into ships like they were inter-galactic vacuum cleaners  (a good scene but that’s about it) and blue lights.

It’s a weakness that it shares with the US Godzilla film a monster needs some metaphor to go with it – without that it’s empty. And Skyline was empty in that regard.

My other complaint or note – not sure which at this late hour (it’s 10:30 I’ve just finished editing the pod cast and I really should go to sleep but) is that for god’s sake if you’re going to have us spend 90 minutes or more with a group of people can at least some of them be a bit likeable – it really defeats the purpose of a film if the viewer is spending his time wishing death upon the cast as they struggle to survive.

The Main character if Jared who is some kind of photographer from NYC who is coming to LA along with his pregnant gf – to visit boy hood friend – big time producer and his brittle blonde wife  - Jared is passive or simply totally self absorbed and really doesn’t fucking care much about well anything and he’s kind of stupid when you get down to it – his gf however is written as being a really really whiny and hyper sensitive bundle of needs that I can see would get on anybody’s nerves in about 13 minutes. The Producer is simply put, a self impressed asshole and his wife is as previously noted brittle and bitter – the producer’s assistant who he sleeps with for no other reason I can see other than the script needs a reason for his wife to so mad at him that they don’t try to escape in the same cars (don’t ask) .

We get about 15 minutes of them before the attack and we just hate them.

I have to wonder – did anybody think that these were folks that anybody was going to spend time with and root for in a movie. There’s not a really redeeming trait among the lot – Jared and the female lead do love each other but it really looks like most of the time they are talking past each other – even when the aliens attack – and after – the need to bicker seems paramount in their lives.

And to top it off – the ending sucks, first they are sucked into an alien ship and yeah Jared’s love of his gf is enough to allow him to overcome whatever conditioning they put into the alien brainwash (now with bleach!) so they can use them to control the various alien machines – we never really meet the controlling intelligence of the Aliens  or at last we never see what it is – an entire learned essay could be written on how unlikely it was that our brains and nervous system (they take bit of the spine it seems as well) would be a good match for an alien interface manufactured who knows when and where – unless they were also originally humanoid in appearance but again we never seem the leaders as it were so we don’t know.

Back to the ending – Jared – powered by the force of love in a way that makes me think the screen writer was powered by the force of scotch – resists the brain washing an retains his own identity even after being put in a machine body – inside said machine body he finds that the GF has been taken to another room because she is pregnant and they want the baby to use its brain – can only suppose because they won’t have to wash it – now the GF is in at most the first trimester – at this point the embryo is about the size of if memory severs a lima bean – there isn’t a lot of brain to work with even for aliens – the brain really starts to grow the last two months or so and continues to grow after birth as well (again if memory serves). Anyway Jared saves GF from the first machine but as we fade out we see his is surrounded by other machines closing in on him.

So they are both dead about 30 seconds or so after the film ends.

And just what is the  point of that?  Are we supposed to imagine that this is the very first time a brain implant didn’t take in the Alien’s history?  Since the robot body is obviously a machine – rather than fighting Jared Alien robot body – the aliens’ would see the brain didn’t take – shut down the machine from outside and pop in another brain.

The ending is not uplifting – it is stupid. And pretty pointless as well.

As is this film.

Bleck.