There have been scores of alien films to date, and with many more in the mix,
The same sort of plot was superbly captured by Spielberg's The War of the Worlds with its high dose of psychological tension; SKYLINE has its white-knuckled moments, but they aren't sustained, and much of the film falls flat with a lack of much action (other than running away from the aliens). It has a 'Cloverland' feel to it, but with the J.J. Abrams film there is a far better raw-nerved edge to it. Some of the visual aspects reminded me of Transformers as well.
I do feel that the actors, primarily the main characters who play husband and wife Jarrod (Eric Balfour), and Elaine (Scottie Thompson) performed reasonably well, there just wasn't enough script content to strike the audience with good story telling or for these actors to flex their muscles much (of them all, I liked Scottie Thompson's performance the best).
Perhaps if there was a secondary pair of main characters who were soldiers fighting the aliens, and there could have been some scene-cutting back and forth between the civilian and military perspectives, perhaps this would have alleviated some of the monotony.
So, the movie begins:
Immediately we are confronted with a scene we've all looked at in previews. These bluish-white streaks cascading from the skies and striking downtown L.A. From within this high rise apartment building, the characters mistake this brilliance for sunrise, but soon learn that this is an attack. One of these characters "Ray" (Neil Hopkins), stands up in the living room and peers through the window as "Denise" (Crystal Reed) looks on (but not directly out the window).
We witness the beginnings of some sort of bio-chemical reaction as the blue light works on Ray. Vascular pronouncements and 'bruising' appears around his eyes, and they slowly turn a whitish-gray. In the very next instant he vanishes with a burst of light!
Flashback! Its 18 hrs earlier and the main characters of Jerrod and Elaine are on a jetliner, flying out to meet Jarrod's hip-hop, business-successful buddy Terry (Donald Faison) and his girlfriend Candace (played by Brittany Daniel). He lives in the apartment in which much of this film takes place, but the luxury building is half empty (presumably in an economy such as ours where few can afford the rent there).
Life in L.A. is typically portrayed as an almost perpetual 'party time' and during one such scene there is an offensively lewd and suggestive act that onlookers are watching on a home made recording of a dvd. The script is lightly peppered with offensive language and women are clad in typically scanty bikini's.
The night life gradually cools off, people venture homeward, and Terry's friends bunk up at his place (during the party its inadvertently let out that Terry has plans on bringing Jerrod and Elaine out to L.A. to work with him). Towards the end of this series of scenes, Elaine confesses to Jerrod that she is pregnant. Then we close the loop of the flash back and we resume the story line.
Jerrod himself, upon discovering that Ray has vanished, according to the horror-stricken, eye witness account of Denise. Its then that Jerrod himself is captured by the seductive, destructive 'blue beam' and begins to get lured in by its hypnotic power, and would certainly have succumbed if not for the fact that his wife pulls him away (later in the film she likewise falls victim to the blue beam, but in turn, Jarrod rescues her.
The influence of this alien energy has an effect of these two nonetheless. They appear to have gained a subconscious insight into the aliens, as well as an increased physical strength that grows in proportion to the lesions that manifest on their skin.
Once all hell breaks loose, the building manager of the high rise apartment, Oliver (played by David Zayas) appears and assumes a leadership role. There is a conflict and disagreement as to how to proceed. They can't get much information through the media about this attack and who committed it because everything seems to be offline. Some believe they should hold up in the apartment, hide and wait until help arrives, and others think they should make a run for it across the street, into the marina, and snatch a boat and flee to safety.
In the midst of this strife, Terry goes to check on a fellow tenant, an old man whose only company is his small dog. Another alien attack that lands a man-sized alien creature right in the middle of the kitchen is followed by the old man's statement about vanishing people all over the city (and they later learn, all over the world) and how its somehow like the 'blankety-blank' rapture (interesting!).
Later, once the group attempts their get away, it results in the death of Terry, the wealthy buddy that invited Jerrod to L.A. in the first place. He gets caught by a lumbering alien creature (about five storeys tall) and sucked into an orifice in the center of its four clawed hand.
Retreating back to the apartment they set siege and hope for the best, but nothing goes right for them, and eventually they (and some others of the apartment complex) are attacked and taken. During one rather graphic scene a man is snagged by an alien which latches its luminous tentacles about his cranium, and then his head bursts open, exposing his brain, which the alien then plucks and draws it into itself.
Military forces arrive, using conventional weapons on planes and ground to air missile launchers, and this has mixed results on the alien vessels and beings. A nuclear device is finally used and for all appearances seems to have worked, but the same eerie blue light begins to emanate from the 'cooked' ship and it then starts to rebuild itself.
Eventually, one by one all the characters are either killed outright, or abducted to be consumed as food (well, just their brains). Even Jarrod and Elaine, after a valiant struggle, are finally taken, and as they rise up into the air, they hold each other's hands, kiss each other tenderly good-bye and then they are brought aboard the mother ship.
They are alive in a morass of human rubble, some of these others are also alive, others are dead. One by one they are plucked up, the brains are popped out and transferred to three aliens, presumably the leaders, that feast on the cerebral sustenance. Jerrod's brains are consumed but leaves a sort of psychic-indigestion that affects the alien. Something strange is happening as the alien tries to shake off the effects of the 'bad meal' but an ongoing effect is apparent (note: an incorrect assertion is made here that equates brain tissue with personhood. That this physical organ contains the real 'you' when in fact the brain is merely protein matter that is suitable for information recording, retrieval, processing and motor functions in the body, but does not contain our 'soul' which is non-physical).
The film ends with an attack on Elaine on board the alien vessel, and just when it seems that she is about to be consumed, the affected alien rushes in and destroys her attackers. The alien creature then gently and fondly strokes Elaine's nose (an action that Jerrod does in moments of affection towards her throughout the film). She recognizes incredulously that this somehow is Jerrod, but more aliens suddenly appear and as Jerrod-alien turns to face them, the movie ends.
What sparked my curiosity about this film was the premise that aliens would come to Earth, attack the people, and as a result of such an encounter "millions of people" suddenly disappear in a brilliant flash of white light. In any preview of this film, the admonition was heard "don't look up" and "you haven't seen the light". Anyone who looks into this light then disappears without a trace, and ends up in a nightmarish place that no one in their right mind would want to go to; that those taken are now in the hands of "the enemy"!
Yet we have heard the admonition of Jesus Christ, that "when we see these things (prophetic events that describe the last days prior to His Return that are even now coming to pass with greater frequency and intensity "as a woman in birth pangs" Matt 24:8; 1 Thess 5:3) begin to come to pass, LOOK UP for your redemption [reclamation] draws near (see Luke 21:28)."
We also know that the enemies of Christ will be destroyed by the "brightness of His coming" (2 Thess 2:8).
In the film itself Oliver rants at Jerrod about how "this is war" and that "the enemy took these people". So the ones that take these millions are perceived as "the enemy", interesting.
I can see that the sort of mental conditioning that this film provides could potentially be used later on down the road when in fact, a 'real alien attack' takes place and millions of people really DO disappear without a trace; in all actuality of course (just as the old man indicated in the film) it will be the rapture of the church, which is spoken about in 1 Cor. 15:51-54 and 1 Thess. 4:16-18.
New Age/Spirituality leaders like Barbara Marx Hubbard, Agnes Sanford and David Spangler have long taught that those aspects of our global village that are unwilling or unable to evolve into the higher state that mankind is moving towards (godhood) would be removed from Earth by 'Space Brothers' or 'Ascended Masters' to undergo remedial education and preparation to rejoin the people of Earth, who at that time will make the evolutionary leap from homo sapien to homo noeticus.
If one was to be "left behind" after the mass disappearance of millions of people, wouldn't it be far more desirable and comfortable to believe that these that vanished were somehow in the wrong, and those who remained are destined for greatness and godhood; much more desirable than say, those taken are now in heaven, and the remaining people are doomed to suffer a great tribulation and decimation at the merciless hands of an Satan-possessed anti-Christ?!
I have already covered much of this 'staged alien terrorist strikes' in previous articles on The RED PILL Consortium and you can find these using the search engine provided "E.T. = Extraterrestrial Terrorists". Whether such a staged event would take place prior to the rapture of the church (in order to obtain the desired effects of increase of power by the [global?] government over the people), or be used in conjunction with this event as a means of explaining away the disappearance of people globally as an alien act, and not at all as something to do with apocalyptic events connected to the Bible, remains to be seen.
What we do see on the horizon is not an alien invasion force, but even more films with such a depiction. Curious . . .
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