Look up! The Brothers Strause are coming for you!

Skyline (2010)

Had the chance to see this at a preview tonight and as I kind of liked the teaser I saw, I was happy to go and see it. Well I guess I should have looked a bit more into the movie before that. When the title credits rolled I saw something that gave me the chills. The infamous sounding name The Brothers Strause. Now where had I seen that before? Couldn't figure it out at start and on we went to the story. We are given a hasty introduction to the characters and quickly rushed to the main thing, the annihilation of human race by aliens. We witness this grand scale event through the eyes of few people hiding in the penthouse of a tall skyscraper. Lots of eye candy in form of digital effects are slapped into the eyes of the viewer, but the story seems quite thin and the characters are even thinner. Then it hit me, Strause, AVP: Requiem! I nearly screamed in terror after that, not that the movie was scary but the guys who made that hideous excuse for a movie were now consuming my time again. I managed to calm myself down as I was seated in the middle of the row I didn't want to disturb my fellow viewers by leaving. Even managed to get myself into thinking, maybe, just maybe there will be some hope for this one. Well it turned out there wasn't. The story is paper thin with basicly no drama at all, just a series of sequences leading to the end "twist" while not forgetting to show off some pretty effects in between. The characters are given dialog as interesting as reading the phone book. So the characters are mere posers and the actors portraying them are not making it any better. The movie looked nice and the effects were pretty, but come on it can't be that hard to put a bit of an effort into the story as well? Kind of like getting a nice big beautifully wrapped package on christmas, but when you open it, it's filled with horse shit. And the ending, well there is none, it's left nicely open for a sequel with this ridiculous alien with a human brain fighting back to save the damsel in distress. Oops, did I spoil it? Believe me, you won't care. Some points for the effects and I'm going to do everyone a favour, just look at the effects here and skip the movie, saves you a lot of time.
11%

A whole lot of Predators

Predators (2010)

Well right from the start I have to say that this is the best sequel to the original. But it's still not even close to being as good as the original. First of all the cast is a bit off, I mean Adrien Brody, a very good actor but a mercenary no way, he just has that accountant look to him that doesn't suit the role. Laurence Fishburne was also a big miss and I almost laughed when he was telling his background, certainly not a good choice. The rest were kind of ok, though I would have hoped for a bit more bad ass characters and the most bad ass of them all gets killed first. So kind of a miss on that department. The story was actually surprisingly good, given that it imitates the first part quite often, but still best out of the other "sequels". The "twist" with one of the characters was quite predictable, but I guess it was kind of meant that way. The action was plenty and entertaining, though there is a bit of over explaining and stupid dialog to get the slowest of viewers into it. The setting looked nice and the "upgrades" the Predators had were slight enough for the true fans. In the end you're left with a barely ok sequel and promises of more to come. In a way I wanted to like it more as it has so many things right, but still it feels a bit pointless.
61%

And here's a quick look at the other Predators.



Predator (1987)

Well what can I say? One of my all time favourite sci-fi action movies and a true classic in it's genre. Macho power from here and out there. Simply perfect.
99%



Predator 2 (1990)

Took the Predator to an urban setting and made it more like an action figure with tons of gadgets. Story had a bit too much going on and didn't really get the most of the juicy surroundings. Certainly not the worst sequel ever made but far behind the power of the original.
58%



AVP: Alien vs. Predator (2004)

Ok so you have one of the best sci-fi action movies and one of the best sci-fi horror movies, put them together and what do you get? A total butt rape of both franchises apparently. This movie fails to deliver on every aspect and really makes me wish it would have never been made. Some points for Lance Henriksen and the few nods towards the originals.
12%



AVPR: Aliens vs Predator - Requiem (2007)

So after a horrible crossover they decided to make another. Needless to say it was even worse...
1%