Movie Review – Dark Skies

by jason130497

Scott Stewart’s Dark Skies, is, well, it’s okay, not great. It has some highs, some definite lows and some inbetweens that are just plain annoying. While the story line of aliens coming and terrorising a family is very promising, the overall performance is lacking, how sad. Keri Russell’s performance is a highlight in the movie, unfortunately it’s drowned out by the annoying acting of her fictional husband – Daniel – portrayed by Josh Hamiliton. He is the character we just want to constantly punch for being a dick. Dakato Goyo seriously saves this movie, he is the pubescent, horny kid that will do anything to impress the ladies, yet, he has no idea what “sexy” is or how to act around a girl, no Jessie, you do not grab the fourteen year old girls boob and no you stupid fourteen year old girl go and kiss him, what the hell is wrong with you! Then something amazing happens, J.K Simmons appears and I honestly breathed again, for the movie could possibly be going somewhere. Oh how I was disappointed when his part finished in about 8 minutes.

So, we have a movie that is definitly worth a watch, in the dark, with the blinds shut and a bowl of food near by. Trust me, I pooped my pants a few times in this movie. It does take a while for the real scary things to start happening. But the setting of the movie is so cliche it’s painful, it just has to be set in a neighbourhood, where you can leave your bike unlocked and you doors unlocked and nothing will get stolen, Stewart, piss off this never happens. You could have set this movie in a shanty town and it wouldn’t have made the it any better. Then we have the second thriller movie cliche, the dysfunctional family that has money trouble, father son troubles and wife and husband troubles, with the two brothers who are oh so close and loving. Then these two oh so loving brothers hear the two parents arguing and start discussing what will obviously happen if these bloody E.Ts hadn’t interviened, yes that’s right; Divorce. That’s a constantly jumpy storyline in the film that annoyed the absolute crap out of me, sometimes they love eachother, other times they dont, please, either love eachother or hate eachother but for god’s sake, not both, please.

What actually makes this movie worth watching is the script and the cinemeatography in it, the use of the different camera angles and the creepy errie music seriously is effective. The whole movie is filmed in such a way that gives these allusive aliens power, this makes us actually fear them before we even see them. When we do finally see them, my god, it was freaky. The other great thing about the breif alien reviel is that there was no music playing, making it dead slient, like it was saying, “you’re about to get scared, something is going to pop out, you will get scared and I will enjoy watching you scream.” Thanks Scott Stewart for that, my couch will never be the same. The script really gives this movie feeling and depth, the delivery is slightly painful though, especially when friggin Josh Hamiliton speaks, god, he was just so obnoxious I wanted the aliens to knock him off sometime during the film (yes I was very disappointed when they didn’t, those pricks). Nonetheless, the delivery from Keri Russell and Dakota Goyo was very good. What wasn’t so great was the lack of character devolopment in the film, yes I know I know, it’s a thriller, so they aren’t meant to, but seriously if you are focusing on one family, something has to devolop. But they remained the same, I mean Daniel become an even shittier parent by attacking a kid and ruining Jessie’s social life, but other than that nothing really happens. Just once I want to see a family actually change in a movie instead of just being the same old family throughout the whole entire feature, it’s tedious and my god was it hard to wath sometimes. Seriously those aliens should have just knocked off Josh Hamiliton at the start, would have saved every watcher the pain of seeing him acting in this film.

My Reaction whenever John Hamiliton starts talking.. Horror.

Now, moving onto the actual action of the movie. The plot line was simple and definitely in need of more movie, but the action is very minimal in this film. It does start quite early though, but that first encounters made me think Bugs Bunny may be having a cameo role in this thriller, alas I was again sadly disappointed. But as the next encounters are seen, the become extremely creepy and quite erries, especially when the alarm company tells Daniel that all 8 entry points of the house were breached at the same time. But, in one scene, it simply eareses all my fear of the impending doom that will more than certainly occur soon. Note to self, if I ever direct an alien movie never and I mean NEVER, bombard the hourse with birds, I was actually laughing at the ridiculousness of this scene (I’m not sure if that’s a word, but I don’t care), I was just gobsmacked at it, I mean it was laughable and I mean really laughable. That was the only scene I found funny, the rest left me with goosebumbs and scared of going to the toilet in the dark. Something that certainly did shock me and actually genuinly frightened me was when Sammy had no eyes, I mean, what the hell, I was seriously horrified at the image of a little boy with no eyes but acting the same way, it creeped me out. Kudos to Scott Stewart for that, because that is not something that is easily done. What makes this movie is the reference to several other movies, like Signs and Paranormal Activity. These light touches make us relate to other scary scenes and make us anticipate something that never actually occurs, Scott Stewart you troll. Don’t make us think something exciting is going to happen then say, nah I’m just gunna do this instead, seriously screw you, it had such promise!

If this doesn’t make you feel something, then I dont know what will…

Overall, Dark Skies is a film that is worth a look, especially if you are alone or with a friend or whatever you’re into. Then turn off all the lights, shut the blinds and get ready for your stomach to be doing jumps the whole time, then watch a comedy after, it’ll difuse the tension of the film because when I watched it, I was alone, in the dark and went to bed straight after and was looking around the whole night. This film has some great actors, some great lines and some great moments. A lot of people said that the films ending sucked but I was the opposite, I thought it worked nicely into the storyline and promised the possibility of a sequel, which I would definitely watch, even though Josh Hamiliton would probably be in it. But, in the end, I would watch it again (with the lights on, I’m not stupid enough to make that mistake twice) and I would probably enjoy it again. So I’m giving this movie a 6.5/10, which is definitely deserved. Until next Saturday.

Happy Days.