Beyond Skyline (2017) User Reviews

Could have been much better

[procletnic · 6/10 · 17 December 2017]

I'm a fan of the first Skyline. I thought it was a well made alien movie that had some mystique to it and an unique ending. Unfortunately, Beyond Skyline takes the most interesting ideas from the first part and completely obliterates them in the most profane way possible.

The first half of Beyond Skyline is pretty good. The main characters are introduced in a very clichéd manner but I don't think that will bother the audience. Once we peek inside the alien ship things start to get really interesting. This is where the film really shines. Lots of special effects, lots of cool environments and lots of "what the *beep* are those things" moments. It really builds up a nice momentum and keeps you interested. But by the time the movie is half way through, things start to take a turn for the worse. The plot starts to get lazy, the characters start to behave oddly and the whole thing starts to fall apart. It is if the screenwriter decided "*beep* it, I'm going all in on this shit" and just destroyed the carefully crafted momentum from the first part of the movie. This is done in a gradual but heavy handed manner.

By the time the movie reaches it final stages, you're not going to care for it anymore. Why? Because the mystique is gone and because the mighty aliens are now being slaughtered in melee combat by some very vulnerable humans. But nothing can rival the final 5 minutes of the movie. You thought slaughtering aliens in heavy armor with knives was over the top? You haven't seen anything yet!

All in all, the movie is quite entertaining but it could have been much better. I feel the story could have worked if the movie had more time to develop it in a natural way. In its current form it just feels rushed and quite frankly stupid. Nevertheless, I feel Beyond Skyline deserves a watch and would recommend it to sci-fi fans.

A good science fiction/action flick and sequel...

[AlsExGal · 6/10 · 19 November 2022]

...this being a sequel to 2010's Skyline. The first half of this film takes place simultaneously with the events of the first film, where LA residents try to survive a citywide alien invasion. This time we follow burn-out ex-cop Mark (Frank Grillo) and his JD son Trent (Jonny Weston) who are on the LA subway train when the invasion begins. They team with other passengers, including train operator Audrey (Bojana Novakovic) and blind Vietnam war vet Sarge (Antonio Fargas) to try and escape from the invaders. Later, after a trip on one of the alien spaceships leaves them stranded in Laos, our heroes join forces with Sua (Iko Uwais) and his underground drug cartel to fight back, while also protecting a mysterious child that may be the key to salvation.

The first film was a modestly successful low-budget affair with a B-movie sensibility and a polished look that belied the small budget. That film was made by the Strause brothers, special effects pros that did almost all of the films very good visual effects at their own homes with home computers. This sequel, which still has the Strause brothers as producers, looks just as sharp, although some shots suffer from being too brightly lit, allowing the FX work to be more obvious. While the first movie was a thriller, this one heads decidedly into action movie territory, with Grillo and Asian action star Uwais both getting into many a martial arts battle. The alien's backstory is explored more, as is the first film's silly reveal that the aliens are after human brains. That element becomes key to the story, and while it's no less silly, there's an attempt made to explain and justify it. Regardless, it doesn't bother me, as it adds to the B-movie appeal. I could have done with less giant robot suit fighting, an aspect added with this film, seemingly inspired by Pacific Rim. In the end, this is a reasonably entertaining B-movie with great visuals, cardboard characters and enough going on to hold one's attention.

Some crazy alien stuff going on here !

[undeaddt · 6/10 · 16 February 2018]

I can't say that I liked the movie, but I also can't say that I did not like it. Why ? Because there is a reason to like it and not to like it. I like it for the ambition put in this project, the hard work, the visuals, the actors and everything. There were parts from the alien scenery I really did like. Put I do not like the pile of plot holes that are everywhere in this movie and unlogical things that happen so often, it makes the movie even funny at some point. I gave it a 6 just because of the hard work, otherwise, 5/10

...if you like bad movies...

[jsliberatore · 3/10 · 17 June 2018]

Maybe some minor spoilers here, but come on, what is there to spoil?

It's bad. How bad is it?

Well, the movie revolves around aliens who steal brains; it starts in LA, then there's about an hour escaping the alien mothership, then they land in Vietnam and everyone knows martial arts, including the aliens (you know, because, Asia). Yes, including the token female, who was a subway engineer at the beginning of the movie. It all wraps up in some kind of macho fantasy with fighting robots and some paper-thin inspirational boondoggles about human resilience. The action sequences are so silly that I just want them to get on with it... but when the action stops, attempts at character and story development are excruciating! Yea yea, the little girl is the key to the blah blah blah... turn this glowing blue orb into a glowing red orb...

I'm not saying you shouldn't watch it-you just have to know what you're getting into. I like bad movies. I like movies that try, but are still bad, like maybe they're not quite in on the joke (for that reason, I don't like movies like Sharknado, where everyone is in on it). That's this movie. It's a special kind of bad movie, that might just hit the spot if you're looking for something truly absurd.

Surprisingly entertaining, again

[madameminty · 7/10 · 10 February 2018]

I liked Skyline (2010). It had a lot of action, interesting style (blue/red light, which I interpreted as something the characters don't actually see), and despite not being particularly smart like Arrival (2016) it was engaging until the ending I found very satisfying. I'm honestly surprised about most reviewers who seem to have expected a different genre altogether and were disappointed the characters aren't as deep as they think they are ;)

Beyond Skyline is simply more of the same, and I mean it. After it neatly blends with the original, it escalates the action, offers more of the same style (might be a tad too much, though), still not very intelligent yet avoids being unforgivably silly, and even delivers an ending I couldn't be happier about. It tries to avoid the mistakes of the first movie, like characterisation or dialogue, but it's debatable whether it worked. Definitely supplements the original and makes the series better than the sum of its parts.

In short, it's a lot like Independence Day (1996), much better than the sequel (2016) and provides a nice alternative to it.

Beyond Skyline: It's big, it's dumb, it's marginally better

[Platypuschow · 5/10 · 13 November 2018]

Sufficed to say I wasn't impressed with Skyline (2010) it was a big dumb Hollywood sci-fi epic that wowed with cgi but was held together by a generic wafer thin plot.

This time starring the superior Frank Grillo we see a different group of people during the invasion and their desperate fight for survival.

Once again it's big, loud, cgi filled and fifty shades of dumb but it accomplishes exactly what it set out to do and manages to do it better than the first movie.

It's mostly loyal to the first film and even succeeds in expanding the mythology further, but honestly not all too well. The majority of the film is predictible, it's full of the usual tropes and cliches and like most Hollywood films plays it very very safe.

It has its moments but you need to remember this is a take your brain out and watch movie (Even more so than ever). If you decide to foolishly think about what you're watching you're in for a bad ride and almost certainly a migraine.

If you enjoyed the first movie you might have fun here, if you want something you need to put any level of thought into stay away.

The Good:

Looks the part

Frank Grillo

The Bad:

Lacks consistency with the first film in places

Recasting previous character

Some of the coincidences defy belief

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

If your son assaults someone it's fine if they knocked them out with one punch

Aliens aren't bulletproof however any human inside devoured won't be hit

Holding enemies off while your friends escape is a pointless sacrifice if you buy them 2 seconds

More movies need brain ripping action

No noise cuts through me more than that of a brat *Ahem* I mean darling child

Beyond Skyline and so much better than the first

[gojo-14173 · 7/10 · 15 December 2017]

As we all know the first movie was boring but this one managed to keep me entertained all the way, good story-line, characters are likeable, the SciFi element is a little unbelievable but heck its a movie that's what they do. If they bring out a third movie, I will go and watch.

not as well written,directed and consistent as 1st one

[surfisfun · 5/10 · 15 December 2017]

Stupid hand to hand combats of men against aliens destroyed the credibility .

if they have kept the logic that aliens are wayyyyy stronger and fast, human are flesh and weak, but not.

too bad, some elements of the story was good .

the actors or direction was better in the first movie and I don't recall bad one liners or jokes or false bravado .

Some interesting idea hinted on some scene in the movie didn't fully developed well. But we saw martial artist kick alien ass!

[king_vsjn · 7/10 · 31 October 2017]

Since HG Wells era, alien genre had shown human beings being exploited by technologically more advanced alien. It is not rare, the film of the genre use horror approach. For about a half an hour of this movie, the audience have to enjoy how the alien tear human brain apart from the host. We would see several corpse of pregnant women with open abdomen from where their baby were forcefully taken. Personally, I hate horror movies so I have to close my ear for half an hour.

Fortunately for me, the horror approach dissipated once the protagonist understand the situation and with unexpected ally, he successfully brought the alien ship down to a South-East Asian country. In the end, the protagonist join force with local forces to resist the rest of the alien.

Following the social-critic of HG Wells' War of The World, Liam O' Donnel the script writer also the director, deliberately put the central of the struggle to the third-world country as an antithesis of common Hollywood movie which usually put America as the hero. He chose South-East Asian because some countries in the region was politically intervened by US. The SE Asian countries also have history of civil war and rebellion to the dictatorial regime. Yet Liam also admit that he married a Laos girl and inspired from her country.

Unfortunately, some interesting idea hinted on some scene in the movie didn't fully developed well. In the end, all those background story became trivial and unmemorable.

However, we should admit that we watched Beyond Skyline not for a complex story. We watched Beyond Skyline because we wanted to see martial artists kick alien butts! In this aspect, Liam and crew had delivered the promise.

Baby just spawns clothes out of thin air

[chaython · 3/10 · 17 December 2017]

Baby just spawns clothes and diapers out of thin air..........

Great action flick

[narftroz · 8/10 · 9 November 2017]

I read some of the reviews of this and would like to say how much I disagree. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie in the theater. I really enjoy the story and effects. Maybe it does not have a completely new idea. Invaders from space have been done many times. This one is very original in its thoughts on how a superior race would accomplish this. If you just set back and enjoy it without judging every little imperfection, you will enjoy it. And I am way over twelve. I was that age when star wars first came out. Take a look and enjoy the originality and great effects. Enjoy!

Shill reviewers on here aplenty

[omendata · 6/10 · 16 December 2017]

I really wanted to like this and was waiting years for the sequel.

How disappointing. There isnt much I can say but the new characters arent a patch on the originals especially the male lead.

The story was poor and as it seems to be an asian production the martial arts nonsense was added to cater for the Indonesian audience and I note that the two main actors from THE RAID are in this as well.

I see some reviewers think the martial arts was good - IT WASN'T , it was terrible - just watch the first scene with the guy and the tree, false punches that never land and the guy from the raid whose knife spin almost fails but they kept it in the film lol

Sadly the special effects and decent CGI don't make a movie and it isnt a patch on the excellent low budget original even though they had more money to use in the sequel.

Its still worth a watch, its not that cringeworthy as some may suggest and is above average but it isn't what we were all waiting for.

Its also not fair to give the movie very very low marks as it is better than a lot of the rubbish out there like ARRIVAL that is so over-rated its just not true - It will pass a Friday evening and satisfy most Scifi buffs with its CGI and creature effects, the violence is quite gory in parts and it is a 6/10 for me - just slightly above average!

As an aside:- Check out all the shill reviewers - so easy to spot. marian_the_nightman lesza_lombok JemmaClemens

I dont know why imdb cannot weed em out.

They either just have one review under their belt or two. Reviewed the movie before its release. Just joined a month after the movie is released.

The most telling is for example user marian_the_nightman OR jemmaclemens whose every single review is given 10/10 - so obvious its sad that these shills still have their accounts.

A Film with Lack of Humor, Character Development and Better Screenplay

[claudio_carvalho · 5/10 · 17 December 2017]

"Beyond Skyline" is a sci-fi film too dark and with a total lack of humor. There is no character development and we do not know anything about the lead characters. The screenplay is full of clichés and a complete mess, with action, detective story, crime, sci-fi, horror and martial arts. The special effects are excellent and maybe the best part of this forgettable B-movie. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): Not Available

Save your time

[theblabla245 · 2/10 · 15 March 2018]

0 character development. They basically just had a scene that showed the name of each character and that was all the actual development we get from them. Except for the dad and son which is flawed.

The son is shown to be some guy who struggles with the law, gets into fights, and shows a obvious disregard for those around him. Yet, 5 seconds later he is giving away all his change to homeless. He is putting himself in danger to save people he met not even a minute ago. They 180 his character.

The script is poorly written. They managed to find two sets of clothes for a baby well on the alien ship (Seriously one minute she naked, the next she is in a dress, the next she has a brand new outfit on.) People go from hating one another to liking each other in a matter of seconds.

This is shown when Frank's character and the sibling survivors fight because the find out Frank is a cop. Well more cops arrive and Frank and the siblings take cover. The siblings are like "Those are other cops and are very bad." And become buddy buddy with no further explanation or dialogue. Like, you were fighting him cause he was a cop now that more arrived you ignore it all? Why?

It's an all over the place mess with characters who rarely give us anything to actually form a connection with.

Great beginning....sadly not a great ending.

[bullyrockromper · 7/10 · 23 December 2017]

This movie blew me away from the beginning...was non-stop action and suspense half way through. Im not sure what happened..either the director became ill and the producer had to take over..or they simply broke the budget.

The characters from the Raid did not fit into this movie...and trust me i LOVED the Raid/2 and the Raid actors.

It had such a good story line, the pace was intense, the main actor is fantastic..but it just became a little silly in the end.

Take motion sickness meds first

[intermedx · 4/10 · 12 November 2017]

First of all, they should get the camera man to stop drinking so we can hold the camera steady. This new style of hand-held cameras is absolutely, and literally, nauseating. I I would like to say it I actually saw the film, but for 40% of it my eyes are closed just keep from puking on the guy in front of me.

The about beside the movie is extremely weak with no character development and it's highly unlikely that an advanced civilization of aliens as those depicted in the movie The Practice martial arts as too close to just vaporising the human beings. I am an absolute sci-fi geek, and willing to forgive a lot of things. But this movie fails on so many levels I wonder why I even spent the time watching it that I will never get back.

I gave it 5 Stars only for the reason that it has some good special effects. But even they were amateurish and I can only think that the camera movement was designed to disguise the poor quality of the CGI.

Much better than the first!

[RBForrest · 7/10 · 16 December 2017]

The first movie had a great premise, but crapped the bed at the end where it really went nowhere and the main character turns into a sympathetic alien...end credits...wtf did I just watch.

Fortunately in Beyond Skyline they explain this. Yes, the overuse of CGI and the end are a bit cheesy, but it seems like the writer turned director really put his heart into this movie. This was clearly his idea, his baby, and he wanted to tell the world. Frank Grillo is awesome as always, playing the brooding yet sympathetic badass cop and Iko Uwais from The Raid plays a thug from the underground in Laos.

The movie starts out as a horror thriller, with the city of LA, almost completely wiped out. Frank Grillo, his son, and a few others get sucked up into the ship and they have to find each other and then their way out. At this point they really delve into the lore and I found it awesome despite it all being CGI. About halfway through the ship crashes in Laos and they escape. At this point the movie starts to drag a little bit, but the characters aren't bad and we are quickly thrust back into the action.

I won't completely spoil it, but the final battle was pretty damn cheesy, but they ended the movie with a lead in for a sequel and I will definitely see it! Also keep watching afterwards for bloopers. They were hilarious!

Beyond Skyline is above average for your straight-to-video movie and I suggest you check it out!

If you thought the first one was bad, you ain't seen nothing yet..

[davejryan-21021 · 1/10 · 6 January 2018]

Where to start, on a high i guess at the end... It finished with a comedy blooper reel which was the only time either someone on the screen or in the room i watched it in, smiled. After the first film you would of thought the government would of used the alien wrecks to figure something out should they attack again, nope, they go down in seconds... though after 40 mins of listening to a baby crying a smack head in the jungle figures out how to destroy them in about 30 seconds, thou not before deciphering a childs human genome in less than a minute of course. Not that the armies advance weaponry was needed as a few jit stains from the jungle managed to kill most of the aliens with a selection of small knifes. This has just taken over Skyline as the worst sci-fi movie I've ever seen, how they got the green light for a sequel is beyond any reasonable logic, if you like those £2 Steven Segal movies you see in bins at petrol stations, then your likely to bump into this quicker than most. And if you thought it was good, you seriously need to reassess your standards... or get some in first place...

Not as bad as people say

[paulbush-21875 · 7/10 · 5 July 2020]

Not a masterpiece but not a disaster. Watchable.

And.... Stuff

I really struggled to finish watching it

[Evil_Herbivore · 2/10 · 18 September 2018]

Let's be totally honest from the very beginning. Beyond Skyline is yet another boring, derivative movie about alien invasion. It offers nothing new and seems like a project completed just for money.

The plot of the movie is the same one we've seen a million times already: humanity goes about its business until a sudden alien attack. People of the Earth are decimated, as the aliens have far superior technology and are much stronger. A few misfits manage to stay alive and fight the aliens back. Yawn. The ending can be pretty much predicted from the very beginning by anyone who have seen even one similar movie.

The pacing is insane, going from one fight scene to another, from one explosion to the next. This means the characters are constantly running, shooting and fighting and we don't learn anything about their personalities. In result, I found it impossible to care about any of them. The actors' performances reflect that as well, as they are all really shallow and uninteresting.

I really struggled to finish watching this movie, as there was nothing in it that interested me, even though I'm a big fan of sci-fi and aliens. The only decent thing is the design of the spaceships, but other than that it is painfully obvious that no one among the people involved in the creation of Beyond Skyline cared about the quality of their product.

Unexpected gem

[rupert-ian · 8/10 · 15 December 2017]

If you love a fun SciFi and aren't going in expecting some cerebral Oscar-worthy movie, you might absolutely love watching this.

It started about how I figured it would, but within 30 minutes it really took off and surprised me. I think it had some original ideas taking it past the usual Alien invasion type movie. The acting is all good for a lower budget Sci Fi, I thought they all did a good job.

One thing that surprised me was the special effects. There were a couple scenes where the CGI was obvious, but they used a nice blend of practical and CGI effects in this movie that must have REALLY stretched their budget to the max. Very impressive. The Aliens, their "craft", ship, weapons, etc. all looked awesome.

I thought the trailer looked like it would be a decent 6/10 straight to dvd type SciFi, but I feel it went much beyond that.

For a fun SciFi movie that isn't meant to take itself too serious, I give it an 8/10. I had a great time watching it and will definitely come back to this one more than once.

Much better

[PatrickP · 16 December 2017]

If "Skyline" were the first fifteen minutes of this movie it would have been successful.

ACTION PACKED THRILLING SCI-FI B-MOVIE & FRANK GRILLO IS ALWAYS AWESOME

[lukem-52760 · 7/10 · 24 March 2021]

A way better film than the first Skyline but that wasn't too bad it just lacked any characters that i cared about but here we get Cult film & B-movie badass Action Star FRANK GRILLO as a hard as nails LA Detective fighting his way through plenty of Extraterrestrial carnage & it's Awesome!!!! The production design, world building & practical & special effects are Amazing for this modest budget Sci-fi Thriller that packs plenty of outrageous action scenes & Cool moments & the sharp neon glowing blue cinematography is really visibly pleasing & otherworldly & the score is beefy & exciting for all the chaos on screen. Soooooo much better than the first film but the first was pretty good just not on the level of this more exciting sequel just like how The Purge: ANARCHY upped everything more exciting & bigger in scale than it's first & both used the Awesome intense tough guy Grillo to lead the sequel. Always get Grillo if you want to improve your sequel!!!! FRANK GRILLO has become a go to Action hero for B-movie type Action flicks & first broke out as a true badass Action hero in THE PURGE: ANARCHY & from there he's been very busy within all Genres (Marvel Films, Captain America: The Winter Soldier & Horror with Demonic & Thriller's Wheelman & The Grey & plenty of others) Frank Grillo is a great tough guy presence & i love seeing him in anything. An action packed sci-fi Thriller with great special effects & a good survival adventure story & GRILLO always makes any sequel better.

What the h***?

[langelvicente · 1/10 · 25 August 2018]

I don't know what I was expecting, I didn't watch Skyline before but after 35 min this went from sci-fi movie to comedy movie to... why I'm watching this movie. I'm glad I watch it on Netflix and I didn't have to pay extra money... waste of time.

bad, bad movie!

[bimokresno · 5/10 · 3 November 2017]

i didn't like the first movie and i certainly hate this follow up. i did not expect much when i go to see this movie because i know this is a 'B' scifi movie with a low budget. i wanted to see just because i wanna see iko uwais in it, also because this movie's shooting location which was in around yogyakarta, my home town. although the shooting location was in Indonesia, with an Indonesian star, the second half movie location was not in Indonesia, rather in some indochine country (golden triangle area). plot was straight forward but dull. dialogues were as bad as cheap straight to video 'B' movie. it's just like watching a syfy movie with slight over budget. but, hey, you got to see a little martial art action from some alien robots! i was disappointed about waste of usage of Indonesian talents and scenery. it's not a good example to promote Indonesia. sorry, iko!