BEYOND SKYLINE (2017) **

I watched the original Skyline a few weeks ago, if only to prepare myself for this Frank Grillo/Iko Uwais starring follow-up.  It wasn’t great or anything, but it did have a balls-out bizarre ending.  Despite the potentially badass pairing of Grillo and Uwais, Beyond Skyline is unfortunately more of the same.

Grillo is a cop who picks up his fuck-up son (Jonny Weston) from the police station.  On their way home, the city is invaded by aliens.  Grillo and his son are sucked up into the mothership and are separated.  He is then aided by a half-alien half-human soldier who helps him find his son.  

I wanted to like Beyond Skyline, but the interchangeable monster attacks, unimaginative spaceship setting, and inconsistent special effects prevents the movie from really taking off.  There are more brain-ripping tentacle aliens, but the new aliens, like the cool Ultraman-type of monster, are woefully underutilized.  Once the film shifts to the jungle, it pretty much stops on a dime.

It also takes Uwais about an hour to show up.  The fight between he and Grillo is brief and isn’t very well choreographed.  I was pleased to see Uwais’ co-star from The Raid, Yayan “Mad Dog” Ruhian appear, but unfortunately, he spends most of his time locked up.  The thrill of Grillo, Uwais, and Ruhian teaming up and squaring off against aliens is short-lived, and poorly edited and filmed to boot.  (We also get Huggy Bear himself, Antonio Fargas as a blind homeless man, although he’s pretty much wasted too.)

At one-hundred-and-seven minutes, the pacing is slow.  A Frank Grillo and Iko Uwais vs. Aliens movie shouldn’t feel so plodding, but that’s exactly what director Liam O’Donnell manages to do.

Like the original, the set-up for the sequel is a lot more interesting (it looks like it’s going to take off into a more Star Wars-influenced direction) than anything found in the rest of the movie.  I’m sure if they put that much invention into the script for this one instead of looking ahead into the future, it would’ve made for a better picture.  As it is, Beyond Skyline isn’t bad, it’s just supremely disappointing, given the talent involved.