Recently I was incredibly bored and I felt like watching some mindless sci-fi action movies. I didn't have to look very hard to find the movies SKYLINE and BATLLE: LOS ANGELES, but I DID have to try very hard to remind myself constantly that I was actually watching 2 different movies that were so similar in their concepts and execution that they both appeared to have been made by the exact same group of people at the exact same time. Interestingly enough, upon further inspection I quickly found out that it ACTUALLY WAS the same exact group of people working on both films at the same time! Normally in such situations, you'd think that a single movie would have sufficed, but in the case of these two digital dumps, even one was already too much.
SKYLINE, * (2010)
All you need to know about this movie right off the bat is that it was made by the same group of people responsible for ALIENS VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM, which is arguably one of the very worst sci-fi / action movies ever made and that is not up for discussion, it is simply fact. Since "the Brothers Strause" (as they like to stylize themselves in their own film credits) obviously believe themselves to be true auteurs of sci-fi (and since they are both rich AND privately own their very own CGI production company [Hydraulx]), it goes without saying that THAT is the only reason why this movie exists. To discuss the film's acting and writing would actually be a grave disservice to the film's special effects, since it is glaringly obvious (and factually true, look it up) that the whooping $10 ~ $20 million allocated for the film's budget went into its post production / CGI while only $500,000 went into LITERALLY everything else. If you want a detailed synopsis of the film's story, all you need to know is that a bunch of attractive people get drunk inside a fancy high rise condo while an alien force destroys LA. That's literally about 95% of the entire movie. The other 5% is just additional special effects.
BATTLE: LOS ANGELES, * 1/2 (2011)
This movie is essentially the same exact thing as SKYLINE, but with a military spin, a higher budget and a single A-list actor (Aaron "Butt-chin" Eckhart). The additional half star is present because I'm a total sucker for well done disaster / monster 'found footage' type cinematography and the film has a good 2 or 3 minutes of that spliced in between an endless barrage of cookie cutter military jargon, shamelessly predictable plotting and an obnoxiously jingoistic sentiment that becomes downright intrusive by the final moments (I'm sure there were army recruiters present at the premiere, handing out pamphlets). The film completely lacks the puerile integrity, sense of humor, and star power that made INDEPENDENCE DAY so successful, which is highly embarrassing since it essentially tries to emulate it by foolishly attempting to create a movie with a 'realistic' approach to the exact same ludicrous and over the top scenario. No matter how many flag-waving and self-sacrificing soldiers are blown to bits throughout the movie, each complete with his own "tell my wife I love her, sarge" type speech, at the end of the day, this movie is still just about giant CGI aliens blowing shit up.
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