Beyond Skyline

Year: 2017
Director: Liam O'Donnell
Cast: Frank Grillo, Bojana Novakovic, Iko Uwais, Pamelyn Chee, Yayan Ruhian, Callan Mulvey, Antonio Fargas, Jonny Weston


Plot: A policeman and his son try to survive an alien invasion, and eventually team up with a motley crew of survivors to fight back.


Review: Does anyone remember Skyline, the alien invasion movie made by the Strause brothers that seemed promising until that ridiculous ending? Well, the brothers now serve as producers to this sequel directed by Liam O'Donnell, and not only have they made a much better film this time around, they even made better use of that stupid ending.

Just like the first film, this sequel's main strength is the visual effects. I recall being very impressed with the way the filmmakers depicted humans being sucked into the aliens' spaceship, and it's just as awesome to watch again here. Overall the CGI is pretty good, except for one of the final battle sequences where two huge aliens engage in a fight. This sequence looked quite bad on screen, but other than that, the visual effects are great.

As for the story, it's more engaging for sure. This time, we're not confined to one small apartment and the survivors are much smarter. They know when to run, and they're not afraid to fight back. I'll admit, a few of the deaths felt senseless, but I was able to ignore it and just go with the flow. The first half features Frank Grillo's cop character Mark trying to rescue his son after he gets abducted, and teams up with train driver Audrey and blind war veteran Sarge to do so.

Then the film changes scenery as our heroes wind up in Laos and runs into a couple of underground rebels led by The Raid star Iko Uwais. This part of the story slows down a bit as the audience learns more about the aliens, but picks up at the climax when Grillo, Uwais and his fellow The Raid star Yayan Ruhian team up to take on the aliens. All this adds up to a genuinely entertaining sci-fi action movie.

Most of the acting here is just average, though Grillo is surely the best one here, followed by Antonio Fargas, who steals the show as Sarge. Bojana Novakovic and Singaporean actress Pamelyn Chee provide some female kick ass action as Audrey and Uwais' sister respectively. Uwais gets to speak English for the first time on screen as Sua, though it's just passable. But who cares? He kicks alien ass, which is what matters here. Watch out for Callan Mulvey, known for playing physical bad guys take on a nerdy scientist role here, he's nearly unrecognisable.

Now, I won't lie, Beyond Skyline is still essentially a B movie overall. The acting is so-so and the camerawork during the fight sequences were quite shaky. But don't let it keep you from checking this out. Soemtimes we just go to the movies because we want to watch something silly and have fun, and this is it. If you ever wanted to know what it would be like if The Raid stars fought aliens from outer space, go check this out. (7/10)