A pair—Eric Balfour and Scottie Thompson—are visiting friends in Los Angeles when extraterrestrials arrive and begin abducting people's brains. They find refuge inside a luxurious apartment building along with Brittany Daniel, Donald Faison, Crystal Reed, and David Zayas. "Skyline" (2010) borrows from other alien invasion movies such as “Independence Day” (1996), “Battle: Los Angeles” (2011), “Cloverfield” (2008), and “War of the Worlds” (1953/2005), while its conclusion echoes that of "Night Skies" (2007). The alien abduction element is reminiscent of “The Forgotten” (2004). The directing team, brothers who specialize in visual effects, were working on the big-budget film “Battle: Los Angeles” concurrently with this lower-budget project, which cost approximately $10 million. Sony Pictures filed a lawsuit but later dismissed it. This seems to have discouraged them from further directing work; despite "Skyline" earning $21 million domestically and $78 million globally, they haven't returned to the director’s chair since—though this did lead to a sequel, “Beyond Skyline” (2017), directed by different people. Given its creators’ expertise in special effects, the visual elements of "Skyline" are impressive. Some of the aliens or spacecraft resemble marine life like octopi and jellyfish; there are also probing tentacles similar to those seen in “War of the Worlds.” The primary vessels and certain alien designs bear a resemblance to those found in “Independence Day.” However, I didn’t find the film particularly compelling because it lacks sufficient character development and has a rather simplistic plot. Nevertheless, it's an unsettling depiction of what a hostile alien invasion could entail. It avoids some of the lighter aspects—like overt patriotism—found in films like "Independence Day," but those movies had more engaging characters and a broader storyline. Essentially, this film is about aliens attacking Earth and taking people; that’s it. Still, it's well-executed considering what it is. The movie has a running time of 1 hour and 32 minutes and was filmed in Los Angeles, with additional shots featuring New York City, London, and Hong Kong at the end. GRADE: B-

Source on TMDB