Skyline

** - The film industry has always had an obsession with the concept of alien forces descending on Earth to conquer the human race for one reason or another. From the days of “War of the Worlds” all the way up to “Independence Day” to, well, “War of the Worlds” again, extraterrestrial invasion has been a gold mine for people wanting to put FX-heavy visuals together with a dopey plot and terrible acting and toss it up on the screen without having to worry about the movie being unsuccessful. Seriously; name me an alien invasion movie that hasn’t well exceeded its budget in terms of revenue. Even the 2010 clunker “Skyline” which stars a bunch of pretty poor actors, is directed by the Brothers Strause – best known for the special effects work – and has next to no story originality made like five times its input costs in theater receipts, and that doesn’t include Blu-ray/DVD sales. Do I really need to describe the plot of this one? Aliens attack, group of friends stuck in a building, trying to escape, picked off one-by-one, blah blah blah, you know the deal. The obvious highlight of the movie is the effect work, which I must admit is pretty darn good from the mysterious blue light effects to the alien crafts and creatures and everything in between. The dialogue and its delivery from the cast which includes, uh, the black guy from “Scrubs” and, er, some greasy haired white guy who thinks he’s a black guy and, um, a trio of hot chicks and a Spanish guy were pretty terrible from start to finish. It might be worth watching if you’re big-time into visuals, but other than that I’d recommend avoiding it.