2010s SF film

Skyline, 2010, USA   DIRECTED BY THE BROTHERS STRAUSE
Cinematically speaking, the second decade of the 21st Century is already showing how 1996's Independence Day has a puzzlingly long reach. That movie was intended as a "let's top all predecessors" capstone on both the alien invasion and disaster genres, yet it has consistently inspired many imitators – some creators of CGI-driven SF movies somehow seem duty-bound to rise to the challenge of imitating that landmark film while in truth they rarely surpass it. Skyline is a case in point, showing off some superior creature and CGI effects while also, unfortunately, displaying some very easily identifiable shortcomings. Let's face it, the Brothers Strause won very few admirers with the mess that was Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem. A story with a bigger reach would have been a good start here – the stressed-but-pretty cast spend most of the time holed up in Greg Strause's LA apartment (yes, that actually is his apartment) trying to keep out of the aliens' way as they hypnotise the humans before hoovering them up into their baroque, gravity-defying motherships. Any dash for freedom is quickly cut short, having the unfortunate side-effect of simply putting the story back in its box until the next CGI sequence comes knocking. This further risks making the screenplay – for the little that it's actually worth – unintentionally funny.

So, we have a puny human story underneath it all that can barely be detected beneath all the hypnotic CGI. This is obviously what the directors intended because, guess what, they also own the CGI company. There's no denying Skyline does have some visually arresting if often clichéd moments, and there are scenes that are blatant rips from other movies, including of course Independence Day plus that brilliantly tense raptor scene from Jurassic Park. But too often the only point of connection between the cast and the outside world is via the aliens, happily some of the freakiest I've seen in ages, who never fail to steal the show when they show up and include some impressive, city-stomping, Cloverfield-esque beasts plus some fascinating, mechanically-tentacled, brain-sucking monsters. And then there's the ending, so deliberately outré that it has the effect of undercutting, rather than reinforcing, all the drama that has just gone before. And why? What's it all for? The aliens' motives are never revealed, although there's a sequel promised that has yet to proceed beyond Development Hell but which might explore this problematic aspect further. Or at least it ought to, because the questions this rather brainless, only partially successful science fiction movie makes you ask are specifically not of the philosophical variety.