Don't Look Up
Rating: 3/10
Running Time: 92 minutes
US Certificate: R UK Certificate: 15
And it’s the end of the world. Again. However, This latest tale of alien invasion is a hugely disappointing pint-sized epic thats kind of part-Independence Day, part-Cloverfield, part-poorly acted, borefest.
The Strause Brothers film follows a group of largely unlikeable Americans – including best buds Terry (Faison) and Jarrod (Balfour) and their girlfriends Elaine (Thompson) and Candice (Daniel) – as they have a crazy mashed up party before trying to avoid some almost-invincible aliens hell -bent on the destruction of the human race who have inconveniently landed in LA.
A big weakness comes from the fact that I didn’t care if any of the deeply unlikeable characters lived or died. Do I want the cocky cheat to survive? Not really. What about his emotionally-retarded frat boy best friend? Nah. And the random middle-aged Hispanic bell boy (Zayas) who turns up in the middle of the film? Let him die, I say. The acting is pure made-for-TV stuff but who can blame them when it’s a cast of journeymen TV stars making up the bulk of the cast. In an attempt to give the characters some backstory all the clichés are pulled out of the bag and hammy dialogue thrown in for good measure. It’s just too one-dimensional as there arent parallel lessons about the human race and relationships or the other usual necessary nonsense.
Even the setting of Los Angeles was a poor decision as, aesthetically, LA is just a bit dull and doesn’t have the pre-requisite iconic buildings to blow up. The action is serviceable but the whole situation never really grips the viewer. Mercifully Skyline is short and sweet, although it could have been even shorter were it not for the tacked-on super-sci-fi climax. The vague ending gives the indication that either there’s a sequel in the pipeline or that they just ran out of money. Please, Lord Jesus, make it the latter.
It's Got: An alien named Jarrod, unlikeable characters, Eric Balfour
It Needs: Characters you can care about, a more interesting setting, Will Smith
Summary
This alien invasion mini-epic is let down by unlikeable characters, boring action and a setting that just doesn’t grip you. After letting myself get taken in by the hype I’ve been left a broken shell of a man. How can I believe in anything anymore?