Technically,
the stunning Hindu temple compound Prambanan is in Indonesia, not Laos, but that
is a mere detail. Wherever it is, it shelters one of the most effective
remnants of human resistance after the alien invasion. Yet, they are still mostly
concentrating on simple survival until an extremely ticked-off LA cop is inadvertently
dropped into their midst in Liam O’Donnell’s Beyond Skyline (trailer here), which is now playing in New York.
Nobody
really loved Skyline in 2010, but
some observers were impressed by the visual dazzle rendered by the Hydraulx special
effects house founded by the co-directors, the Strause Brothers. This time, the
Strauses concentrated on VFX and producing duties, allowing O’Donnell (a
co-screenwriter and co-producer of the first installment) to take over the director’s
chair. It turns out, this is a much better distribution of labor, because Beyond is a gleeful helping of meathead
sci-fi.
Mark
Corley has been on leave from the LAPD since the death of his beloved wife
Rose, but he still periodically pulls himself out of the bottle and into the
station to bail-out his lashing-out “new adult” son Trent. They were headed
home on the subway when the aliens started sucking all the people out of Los
Angeles. Soon, they regroup with Audrey the conductor and a couple of Corley’s
colleagues, but despite their best efforts, they still get whisked into the
mother ship.
As
viewers of the original know, abducted humans have their brains removed and
inserted into robotic exo-skeletons, so they can serve as slave drones. However,
the dude from Skyline ’10 fully
maintained his consciousness and agency. When Corley blunders into him, he is
still protecting his wife, whose pregnancy has been unnaturally accelerated by
the aliens. In fact, Corley will deliver the fast-growing baby girl, pledging
to protect her.
Thanks
to alienified Jarrod, they bring the mother ship down right smack-dab in the
center of the Golden Triangle. As the alien ship regenerates itself, Corley and
Audrey forge an alliance with Sua and Kanya, sibling drug-runners turned
resistance leaders. They have an extensive network of shelters underneath Prambanan.
They also have a lot of guns, but the secret to mankind’s survival might very
well be found in the genetically altered child’s blood.
Beyond Skyline really is the
sequel we didn’t think we needed or wanted, but turned out to be exponentially
better than the original. There have been plenty of sequels that were better
the originals they followed, but the Skyline
duology might represent the greatest increase in quality and entertainment
value. It is easy to understand why from the one-sheet, which does not lie—Frank
Grillo, along with Iko Uwais and Yayan “Mad Dog” Ruhian from The Raid lay a martial arts beat down on
the aliens. Plus, Singapore TV star Pamelyn Chee gets to show off some action
chops as Kanya.
Grillo
was born to play damaged hardnosed characters like Corley, but he also develops
some nice chemistry with Bojana Novakovic’s Audrey. He also has some nice
moments with Jacob Vargas playing his former partner. Uwais and Ruhian do not
have much opportunity to emote and develop character as Sua and the corrupt “Chief,”
but they sure have the moves. Yet, Chee manages to make Kanya fully dimensional
and tragically believable, despite all the bedlam exploding around them.
Look,
Beyond Skyline is maybe not the only
science fiction sequel opening this weekend, but it is guaranteed to blow away
your expectations. O’Donnell also deserves credit from learning from the first
film’s mistakes. No more shaky cam, so you can see steady full body shots of
the fight choreography. Unlike the first film’s downbeat ending, Beyond ends on a note worthy of a John
Williams fanfare. Recommended as just a lot of healthy, completely illogical
fun, Beyond Skyline is now playing in
New York, at the Cinema Village.
