Skyline Options

[Pickysaurus]

Well, I just invested 12 of my hard earned pounds on that new film called 'Skyline'. It's had mixed reviews, but I thought it was pretty poor overall, as soon as things got interesting it was the end of the film :S

I did like the UAV vs Mothership scene though ^.^

[Raven]

I also watched it sometime back. The visual effects were quite impressive. Apart from that the plot wasn't any good.

The humans are losing ending is a bold new type of finish that I appreciate. However the finals scene is a direct rip off from District 9.

As you said Picky that scene was quite awesome .

[Jester]

I watched the movie in the cinemas when it first came out and was quite dissapointed aswell although the UAV scene was quite sweet. It sucked how the characters where in the same building all the way through the film and there was pretty much no change IMHO go and watch battle LA this has to be THE best alien movie this year if not all time. i loved how it was constant combat and the effects are just mind blowing.

[Raven]

I was fortunate to go to the premier here. I found it disappointing. It looked more like a commercial for the US marines rather than anything else. Also some things were too unrealistic IMO.

I mean like how they target the heart. They had to cut through heavy armor to expose the heart. Yet the alient gets killed in a single burst from the M4

The climax was not strong enough for me. Its not bad, but disappointing IMO.

[MARS]

For once, I'd actually like to see an alien invasion movie in which the motives of the aliens go beyond conquering Earth to acquire some random resource or eat us. For starters, invading a planet purely for its resources is among the most uneconomical things you can do. There's literally millions of asteroids and uninhabited planets out there which you can strip mine without any opposition and water isn't particularly rare either. If you can master interstellar space travel, you can probably melt ice, too, if you need liquid water. Wanna eat some humans, suck out their brains or whatever? Discreetly take some genetic samples and mass-produce human lifestock in farms instead of invading major cities full of pissed-off humans who don't want to wind up in a meat smoothie for the overmind.

And while we're at it, how about aliens that actually behave like intelligent, emotional creatures instead of hideous abominations for the humans to exterminate without any moral concerns? This whole 'fighting for survival where surrender or co-existence are not an option because the aliens cannot biologically comprehend good and mercy'-plot is kind of old, and a completely uncompromising 'take no prisoners' approach to planetary invasion where you're still trying to capture most of the planet intact (i.e. without nuking it from orbit) is not particularly smart from a strategic standpoint either.

If your tech-level is sufficient enough to travel through space and project force on another planet, yet, not sufficient enough to the point where your species no longer requires any sort of planetary eco-system, your military resources will be limited and logistics will be an issue. Logistics are the most important, yet consistently under-represented aspect of any war effort. Screw up here and you're doomed, like any Russian commander will snidely inform you as your troops get bogged down in mud and snow, starving to death while their toes freeze off. Any opposing force that can be subdued without fighting will be a much greater victory than just killing everyone in your path; that only throws your remaining enemies into a "don't go gentle into the night"-style banzai-mindset. If surrender is impossible, enemies will fight to the last drop of blood, if only to piss you off and if that doesn't work, they'll nuke their entire planet and thus destroy the planetary eco-system you wished to conquer intact. Good job, you're now in control of a dead, irradiated planet, lost precious time and resources and destroyed all the infrastructure that could have been a foundation for partial colonisation after a cease-fire.

*punches himself in the head to remind himself to get the fuck back to writing his sci-fi novel*