...but to be quite honest, it isn't that bad.

Actually an OK B-Movie.

All of the complaints against the acting are, for the most part, unfounded. It's not academy award winning material, but i think pretty much everyone involved gives competent performances.

And i'm not sure what people wanted from the dialogue. These are regular people in way over their heads in the middle of an alien invasion.

I thought the dialogue was not an issue.

The ending DID push the limits a bit, but at the same time I guess it was the only conceivable way to end on a hopeful note, given that the entirety of the film showed us how screwed humanity was against these guys.

This was not anywhere near the abomination that was Aliens Vs. Predator: Requiem.

I'd probably rank it a solid 6.5/10.

And i have to admit i'm as surprised as anyone by that. Movie does NOT deserve the critical hate it's getting.

Jarrod (Eric Balfour) and his pregnant girlfriend Elaine (Scottie Thompson) are in L.A. to attend his successful entrepreneur friend Terry (Donald Faison)'s birthday. Terry is cheating on his wife Candice (Brittany Daniel) with his assistant Denise (Crystal Reed). After the party, the group crashes in Terry's apartment. Then in the middle of the night, bright blue lights descend on the city and people are pulled in if they stare at them. The lights go back up and then the aliens land.

The movie wastes time to introduce the characters and their melodrama. The problem is that they're not very compelling characters and all the melodrama is meaningless after the aliens arrive anyways. The movie depends on the viewer's expectations. The special effects are well done especially considering its low grade derivative B-movie nature. Better writing and more compelling sympathetic characters could have improved this. The movie picks up a good head of steam but then the group bunkers down halfway through. There's a nuclear blast and their apartment window doesn't even rattle. This is simply an exercise in special effects and not much more.

SKYLINE, a movie apparently shot in an apartment with the special effects done on a home computer, turns out to be a great little sci-fi effort and the sort of film that's right up my street. It's far from original of course, stealing stylistic from the likes of INDEPENDENCE DAY while mixing the narrative of the even-better BATTLE: LOS ANGELES and CLOVERFIELD, coming off as halfway between the two. It's a definite step up from ALIEN VS PREDATOR: REQUIEM, the previous movie made by the Brothers Strause.

The plot is very simple and sees a small group of people trapped in their apartment while an alien invasion rages on outside. The film is heavy on the CGI effects and most of them are very respectable; certainly when compared to bigger-budgeted Hollywood fare. Despite the paucity of originality this is a suspenseful film throughout that expertly builds tension and features some great shocks and set-pieces all the way through.

SKYLINE isn't a perfect movie by any means; the script has a problem in that none of the characters are sympathetic, so with better characters it would have been truly masterful. It doesn't help that there's a non-ending of sorts, with the movie just finishing abruptly and leaving things open for a possible future sequel. But it's worth ignoring these flaws and concentrating on what is a thrilling and frightening effects-packed outing.