VOD budget aside, it’s a kick to see a movie actually have to cash its “fight the aliens on their turf” check. It’s a little less actioner/martial-arts-centric in exchange for a slighter larger scope, and it’s every bit as “Why the hell not?” weird as its predecessor. This isn’t “ Braveheart or Black Hawk Down in space” but rather a small-scale mission into enemy territory to defeat the invaders from within. For the record, Skylines, set 15 years after the events of Skyline and Beyond Skyline, is limited by its budget. While the teases at the end of mega-budget bombs turned out to be mere bluffs, Skylines actually delivered. Independence Day: Resurgence and Pacific Rim: Uprising both made the key mistake of holding off the cool new idea for the threequel and instead offering up a sequel that was merely a warmed-over rehash of the first film. So you know that, spoiler warning, the film ends on a proverbial cliffhanger, with the victorious humans vowing to take the fight to the aliens’ respective turf next time. You can watch Beyond Skyline on Netflix as we speak, but I’m guessing if you’re reading an Internet article about Skylines you’ve already seen it. It’s no grand masterpiece, but in terms of VOD sequels being better than their theatrical predecessors, it’s up there with Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Universal Solider: Day of Reckoning. That (surprisingly terrific) sci-fi actioner starred Frank Grillo and both Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhian (from The Raid) in a $20 million VOD alien invasion flick that delivered a satisfying mix of sci-fi carnage, halfway decent character work and not a little martial arts adventure.
Skylines is actually a threequel, as it explicitly follows the events of 2017’s direct-to-VOD title Beyond Skyline. But like the war between Olympus Has Fallen and White House Down in 2013, it was the smaller, less ambitious flick that spawned a franchise. Skyline earned $68 million worldwide while Battle: Los Angeles earned $211 million on a $70 million budget. Sony dismissed its suit after being satisfied that no Battle: LA effects were used in Skyline, and both films were moderate successes. The $10 million Sony release featured special effects created by Hydraulx, who were sued by Sony after being hired to do effects for the bigger alien invasion flick without informing them that they were doing similar work on a similar film scheduled for release almost concurrently. Arriving today on VOD and in limited theatrical release courtesy of Vertical Entertainment, Skylines is the follow-up to Universal’s theatrically-released and much-maligned Skyline, which opened just months before the similar Battle: Los Angles in early 2011.