Skyline (2010)

Skyline review

I knew while driving my baby home to her west-side condo after watching the Strause Brothers’ new flick that critics would probably lambaste this mess of a movie, but one man’s chaos is another man’s enjoyment. And that’s exactly what I experienced between shots of JD and the occasional crotch grab.

We can figure out what the Strauses were trying to do with Skyline in the next paragraph but for now I just have to congratulate them on putting a smile on my face. I love unhappy endings. They are a rare commodity in an industry always looking to please a dwindling audience. Give ’em a happy ending or they will stay at home is what passes for vision in mainstream Hollywood. Give me the Casablancas and the Last American Virgins of the world at least once in awhile to create some perspective if nothing else.

So what is going on in Skyline you may ask yourself throughout the movie. Hell even at the end you may still be confused. Now we have the crux of why I was not surprised at seeing it trashed in print and online. So for all those wishing a possible explanation to what seems on the surface to be a convoluted mess, let me spark up some extra brain cells thought lost since my introduction to the boilermaker and lead you through the Skyline maze.

Basically, you need to catch two things. First is that Skyline is a setup to a second where more will be revealed and explained. The second is our male lead is a special breed of human.

We know that aliens have come down to Earth to harvest human brains to complete the engineering of their armies. We know that Jarrod is special because he is the only one post-transformation who keeps his self-awareness. We know that a strange blue light hypnotizes people and then carries them up to the alien ships for harvesting. We know Jarrod was interrupted in this process and confesses he feels stronger, even after his reversion back to humanity sans fucked up eyes and spreading black veins caused by the blue light.

This is everything we know and to go any further is speculation. But the only way the Strauses could ever convince the financiers of Hollywood to invest in a film that leaves so many loose ends dangling is to assume that the plan was to release a sequel. And leaving monster Jarrod standing protectively over his pregnant girlfriend retaining his pretransformation consciousness just begs for a continuation to Skyline , if only to explain why they wouldn’t just have him join the ranks without any Jarrod retention and leave it at that.

So look forward to Skyline II in the near future and maybe my enjoyment of a sad ending will be debunked as being woefully premature.

Later,