Beyond Skyline

I'm a fan of the first Skyline. I thought it was a well made alien movie that had some mystique to it and an unique ending. Unfortunately, Beyond Skyline takes the most interesting ideas from the first part and completely obliterates them in the most profane way possible.

The first half of Beyond Skyline is pretty good. The main characters are introduced in a very clichéd manner but I don't think that will bother the audience. Once we peek inside the alien ship things start to get really interesting. This is where the film really shines. Lots of special effects, lots of cool environments and lots of "what the *beep* are those things" moments. It really builds up a nice momentum and keeps you interested. But by the time the movie is half way through, things start to take a turn for the worse. The plot starts to get lazy, the characters start to behave oddly and the whole thing starts to fall apart. It is if the screenwriter decided "*beep* it, I'm going all in on this shit" and just destroyed the carefully crafted momentum from the first part of the movie. This is done in a gradual but heavy handed manner.

By the time the movie reaches it final stages, you're not going to care for it anymore. Why? Because the mystique is gone and because the mighty aliens are now being slaughtered in melee combat by some very vulnerable humans. But nothing can rival the final 5 minutes of the movie. You thought slaughtering aliens in heavy armor with knives was over the top? You haven't seen anything yet!

All in all, the movie is quite entertaining but it could have been much better. I feel the story could have worked if the movie had more time to develop it in a natural way. In its current form it just feels rushed and quite frankly stupid. Nevertheless, I feel Beyond Skyline deserves a watch and would recommend it to sci-fi fans.

I really wanted to like this and was waiting years for the sequel.

How disappointing. There isnt much I can say but the new characters arent a patch on the originals especially the male lead.

The story was poor and as it seems to be an asian production the martial arts nonsense was added to cater for the Indonesian audience and I note that the two main actors from THE RAID are in this as well.

I see some reviewers think the martial arts was good - IT WASN'T , it was terrible - just watch the first scene with the guy and the tree, false punches that never land and the guy from the raid whose knife spin almost fails but they kept it in the film lol

Sadly the special effects and decent CGI don't make a movie and it isnt a patch on the excellent low budget original even though they had more money to use in the sequel.

Its still worth a watch, its not that cringeworthy as some may suggest and is above average but it isn't what we were all waiting for.

Its also not fair to give the movie very very low marks as it is better than a lot of the rubbish out there like ARRIVAL that is so over-rated its just not true - It will pass a Friday evening and satisfy most Scifi buffs with its CGI and creature effects, the violence is quite gory in parts and it is a 6/10 for me - just slightly above average!

As an aside:- Check out all the shill reviewers - so easy to spot. marian_the_nightman lesza_lombok JemmaClemens

I dont know why imdb cannot weed em out.

They either just have one review under their belt or two. Reviewed the movie before its release. Just joined a month after the movie is released.

The most telling is for example user marian_the_nightman OR jemmaclemens whose every single review is given 10/10 - so obvious its sad that these shills still have their accounts.

Maybe some minor spoilers here, but come on, what is there to spoil?

It's bad. How bad is it?

Well, the movie revolves around aliens who steal brains; it starts in LA, then there's about an hour escaping the alien mothership, then they land in Vietnam and everyone knows martial arts, including the aliens (you know, because, Asia). Yes, including the token female, who was a subway engineer at the beginning of the movie. It all wraps up in some kind of macho fantasy with fighting robots and some paper-thin inspirational boondoggles about human resilience. The action sequences are so silly that I just want them to get on with it... but when the action stops, attempts at character and story development are excruciating! Yea yea, the little girl is the key to the blah blah blah... turn this glowing blue orb into a glowing red orb...

I'm not saying you shouldn't watch it-you just have to know what you're getting into. I like bad movies. I like movies that try, but are still bad, like maybe they're not quite in on the joke (for that reason, I don't like movies like Sharknado, where everyone is in on it). That's this movie. It's a special kind of bad movie, that might just hit the spot if you're looking for something truly absurd.

Sufficed to say I wasn't impressed with Skyline (2010) it was a big dumb Hollywood sci-fi epic that wowed with cgi but was held together by a generic wafer thin plot.

This time starring the superior Frank Grillo we see a different group of people during the invasion and their desperate fight for survival.

Once again it's big, loud, cgi filled and fifty shades of dumb but it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do and manages to do it better than the first movie.

It's mostly loyal to the first film and even succeeds in expanding the mythology further, but honestly not all too well. The majority of the film is predictible, it's full of the usual tropes and cliches and like most Hollywood films plays it very very safe.

It has its moments but you need to remember this is a take your brain out and watch movie (Even more so than ever). If you decide to foolishly think about what you're watching you're in for a bad ride and almost certainly a migraine.

If you enjoyed the first movie you might have fun here, if you want something you need to put any level of thought into stay away.

The Good:

Looks the part

Frank Grillo

The Bad:

Lacks consistency with the first film in places

Recasting previous character

Some of the coincidences defy belief

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If your son assaults someone it's fine if they knocked them out with one punch

Aliens aren't bulletproof however any human inside devoured won't be hit

Holding enemies off while your friends escape is a pointless sacrifice if you buy them 2 seconds

More movies need brain ripping action

No noise cuts through me more than that of a brat *Ahem* I mean darling child

I liked Skyline (2010). It had a lot of action, interesting style (blue/red light, which I interpreted as something the characters don't actually see), and despite not being particularly smart like Arrival (2016) it was engaging until the ending I found very satisfying. I'm honestly surprised about most reviewers who seem to have expected a different genre altogether and were disappointed the characters aren't as deep as they think they are ;)

Beyond Skyline is simply more of the same, and I mean it. After it neatly blends with the original, it escalates the action, offers more of the same style (might be a tad too much, though), still not very intelligent yet avoids being unforgivably silly, and even delivers an ending I couldn't be happier about. It tries to avoid the mistakes of the first movie, like characterisation or dialogue, but it's debatable whether it worked. Definitely supplements the original and makes the series better than the sum of its parts.

In short, it's a lot like Independence Day (1996), much better than the sequel (2016) and provides a nice alternative to it.