Review of Beyond Skyline (2017) by Allan C — 25 Dec 2018

Liam O'Donnell was the producer on the weak original PG-13 alien invasion film "Skyline," but he returned seven years later as writer/director with a surprisingly good R-rated sequel for Netflix.

One of the main weaknesses of the first film was that it was populated with uninteresting and even annoying 20-something characters (watch "Cloverfield" for a much better 20-something alien invasion film), but this sequel takes place during the same alien invasion with a completely new (and not annoying) set of characters.

The main character is AN alcoholic LAPD detective, Frank Grillo, trying to save his no-good teenage son from being abducted by the invading alien force. When Grillo gets aboard an alien spacecraft, he discovers the aliens are stealing human brains to implant into their alien soldiers.

With some help, Grillio manages to bring the spaceship down, crashing in Thailand where he meets up with, BOOM, "The Raid's" Iko Uwais! After a wary initial meeting, the two team up to save a baby Grillo rescued from the spacecraft who might be the key to defeating the aliens.

Compared to the first film, this sequel is populated with much more conventional of action film of characters, with Grillo hot off of The Purge films, in a tough cop role, but best of all the inclusion of Uwais, who became an international action sensation in Gareth Edwards dizzying Raid films.

Outside of a bit part in "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" this was his first major role in an American production that allowed Uwais to show his fighting skills. The fights are nowhere as good as Edwards' fight sequences, but they're pretty darn good.

The other thing going for this film is that the story moves quickly from one event to the next and is constantly pushing the story forward, with character discover something new about every 10 minutes, so unlike "The Purge: Anarchy," where Grillo seemed to endless yell "Keep moving!" over and over as characters moved form one random situation to another.

But overall, "Beyond Skyline" is a big improvement over the original, and although it's nowhere as smart as say "District 9" and is nowhere as fun as say "Independence Day," it's a pretty satisfying alien invasion picture and I would definitely watch a sequel if they made one.