Beyond Skyline is without a doubt one of the better low-budget SF films I’ve seen in recent years. Visually, that is. In terms of content, I thought it was only half successful. Until the part that takes place in Laos, it’s acceptable. From there on story starts to be pretty absurd.
The film resembles War of the Worlds with extraterrestrials who have the same goal as in Independence Day. And again a world population that tries to defend itself against an apparently invincible alien race. Of course this movie can’t be compared to these two blockbusters. But still praise for the CGI department because it sometimes was pretty impressive. Maybe they could have made the interior of the spaceship less dark. But the huge creatures which were used to move around with on earth, were beautifully designed. Almost the monsters that disrupted life on Earth in Pacific Rim.
It’s all fascinating until the huge spaceship crashes in Laos and Mark, along with train conductor Audrey (Bojana Novakovic), join a kind of rebel army. These freedom fighters hide in chambers beneath Buddhist-looking Vietnamese temples which survived the bombing of the Vietnam War. Ultimately, it’s just an ordinary drug gang with an American scientist in their midst (I bet he played in Apocalypse Now as well). Together with this scientist and the amazingly fast growing baby, saved by Mark and Audrey on the alien spaceship, they try to find a solution and thus save mankind. Absurdity surpasses your wildest expectations at that moment.
From here on you can witness a self-rebuilding spaceship. And how these seemingly unbeatable and invulnerable-looking space figures are defeated by some Asian martial arts fanatics who are eliminating these armored Predator characters with the help of some Hong Kong Phooey movements. If you saw in the first half how destructive and unbeatable these aliens were, this is pretty ridiculous.
So, it’s not that perfect. And you don’t get a real explanation about the reason for this invasion either. And yet it was all enjoyable and admirable what the makers did here. Creating such breathtaking fragments with such a limited budget is already worthy of applause. For the die-hard SF enthusiasts, this is definitely worth a watch.
Beyond Skyline is available now on DVD/Blu-ray and via on-demand services.
Peter Pluymers
For more of Peter Pluymers’ movie reviews, check out Opinion as a Movie-Freak
Other reviews you might enjoy:
- The Cloverfield Paradox – home entertainment review
- Alien: Covenant – home entertainment review
- Arrival – HE review
David Edwards is the editor of The Blurb and a contributor on film and television