Skyline (2011)

It's Terry's (Donald Falson) birthday weekend and he's having a huge bash. To celebrate in proper fashion, he flies out his best buddy from the old days, Jarod (Eric Belfour) and his girlfriend Elayne (Scottie Thompson). Terry is the founder and head of a special effects company that has made him a very wealthy man. While he wants to see Jarod, he also has a secret agenda - to get Jarod to leave Brooklyn behind and settle in L.A. to work for him. Terry doesn't work on his birthday, so he has assistant Denise (Crystal Reed) handle everything including bathroom sex, while his girlfriend (or perhaps she is his wife) Candice (Brittany Daniel) plays hostess. Sometime during the night, building manager Oliver (David Zayas) comes to tell the partiers to quiet down.
At 4 in the morning, everything changes. Mysterious balls of blue light come to earth all over the city. Anyone who looks directly into the light becomes hypnotized/mesmerized and walk into the light and the disappear. Denise sees the happen firsthand to some party guest who too drunk to drive home, had been sleeping on the floor while she was on the couch. When Jarod comes out to investigate her yells and screams, he is also transfixed by the light but is rescued by Elayne and Terry before it is too late.
To discover what is going on, Terry hatches the brilliant plan for her and Jarod to go to the roof to investigate while the ladies stay in the apartment. Jarod discovers that the blue light is pulling the people into the air, and it is not long afterwards that they discover the aliens.
Everything they try is ridden with disaster. First they lose Denise, and then Terry, but gain Oliver. They hold out for a while, Elayne eventually revealing to all that she is pregnant. Jarod has been changed by the time he spent looking into the light. He is somehow stronger, both in mind and body. Eventually, Candice is taken, and Oliver blows himself up in order to kill an alien and hopefully buy Jarod and Elayne the time they need to escape.
Did I mention that somewhere along the way, the U.S. military nukes the mother ship? Thank goodness for our heroes, the aliens seem to absorb most of the blast and all of the radiation.
In the end, Jarod and Elayne are left to fight one of the aliens in hand-to-hand combat, and just when they seem to win, they lose. Jarod has his brain/spinal cord implanted in one of the alien bodies, while the aliens examine Elayne and try to get at her yet unborn child.
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Remember when Turk decided to quit being a doctor so that he could be a gangsta record company exec, er, I mean special effects company exec? And the honorable rapscallion turned restaurateur in Haven, XXX, decided to become a mumble-mumble-mumble in Brooklyn who didn't earn very much money? Remember when they started dating those women that looked very familiar, but not so familiar that you could actually recall their names...maybe someone you went to high school with or was in that one Bio class that you always used to sleep through, you know with Professor Whats-his-name who was only there long enough to introduce the grad student that would wake you when you're nap was over. And remember when that other guy that kind of looked like that one guy who was either a vampire down in Mexico or fought them or something, anyway, remember when he gave up the adventurous life to become a building manager?
I kept hoping that Bruce Willis, or hell, Bruce Campbell was going to show up. He was going to kick some alien ass while spouting off semi-amusing one-line quips. Or maybe the aliens were going to kick his ass while he quipped, but never quite kill him. This film had that feel. Stick the supporting cast out there to set everything up and then bring in your star power to bring it all home.
Well, they didn't go that route. Too bad. But, they also didn't go the route of most Hollywood alien invasion flicks where the small, but spunky, rag-tag team of heroes eventually defeat the aliens. At the end of this one, there appear to still be military assets in play, but the heroes/heroines are all dead or captured. Or upgraded to the alien body that allows them to protect their pregnant girlfriend. They did totally set themselves up for a sequel.
You know what this movie reminds me of? Resident Evil. I had never heard of this movie before it was placed in my hot little hands, so for all I know, it is based on a video game. If it's not, well they'd be stupid not to put a game out.
You can tell a lot about a movie from reading the box it comes in. Do they highlight the stars, the story, the director? This box has the large print statement on the back (the only thing larger than the typical 6 point font they always use), "FROM THE VISUAL EFFECTS MASTERMIND BEHIND AVATAR, IRON MAN 2 AND 300!" Ouch! The tiny print is the synopsis at least. But, hey, you should always accentuate the positive. And the special effects are a definite positive. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes good special effects and doesn't want to become to emotionally attached to the characters.