Beyond Skyline (2017) - Too Wacky for its own Good

I watched Beyond Skyline's prequel Skyline when it came out in 2010. That was advertized as the next Cloverfield and it still delivered. I gave that one a 2 out of 4 as it belonged to the "hate it or love it" category. I could say the same for Beyond Skyline (2017). 

You'll be impressed by the hard work that was done to not make this movie look like a low budget one. Truthfully, if this sequel had a larger budget like this year's Alien Covenant then the former would've been a fully superior exhibition. Beyond Skyline also hits the right notes in regards to it being a B-movie; with the ruggedly handsome Frank Grillo playing the main role, an attractive leading heroine (Bojana Novakovic), and unexpected big names from a smaller but high-on-impact Indonesian film industry: Iko Uwais (The Raid: Redemption, The Raid 2, Headshot) and his frequent co-star Yayan Ruhian. Even though the primary storyline is badly written; extremely predictable—you'll notice that the Indonesian stars weren't cast for nothing. O

ne thing that could've saved this flick from mediocrity was promoting itself as a comedy-action feature like those more popular entries in Edgar Wright's filmography (Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz). This is because you'll laugh out loud at sequences you shouldn't and vice versa. Hopefully, director Liam O'Donnell should get more chances at making bigger budget sci-fi ventures, even though Beyond Skyline is still a far cry from District 9. Yet again you don't see that movie's filmmaker Neill Blomkamp's directorial credit on any picture nowadays.

 The Rating: 2 out of 4.