Okay, one question. Why are they using New York City subways to represent the small subway system in Los Angeles? I have been on both, and the trains look nothing alike. That's the first thing that got me about this movie, especially with the fact that these people all seem to be the only ones on a subway car, the one where the dim as a light bulb conductor (Bojana Novakovic) to guide them with any sort of genuine authority. It's up to Frank Grillo to take command, and at times, I'm surprised people didn't look back at the actual conductor and tell her to shut up. She was pointless. Unfortunately, she's the leading lady so you're stuck with her. When they walk out of the New York Subway and into the Los Angeles lights, a lot of them are sucked up by aliens in spaceships above, and dramatically so, CGI style.

While there are a few characters from the original "Skyline" here, they are minor supporting characters so you really don't have to know much about the first film The followed us. That's pretty good because it's bad enough without having to have suffered through the original. Yes, it's got all the elements of a modern disaster film, but that isn't always a good thing because it's style over substance, if you want to call what they utilize here as style. A lot of the dialogue is absolutely absurd, and the characterizations ridiculously created. After one man is pulled out of the aliens torso, a cop actually asks him if he's all right. Apparently human bullets can actually subdue the creatures from another world, vile looking beings with tentacles that don't look that easy to destroy, and there are a variety of other forms of aliens among them that couldn't fit into the combined L. A. / New York Subway system, but the bullets don't work on them.

Veteran actor Antonio Fargas as a homeless man is the only character worth any kind of sympathy. This is the type of film that you watch with a group of friends, knock back a few drinks and just laugh with each other at all the absurdities of the film. It seemed to me that these were really aliens, but demonic forces from somewhere viewers don't want to know about. The special effects Austin get truly disgusting, with those pulled up into the ship waking up covered by some type of goo and subjected to all sorts of creepy looking experiments. It says it fell ran out of room and decided to create a space station instead, but the only real hell is for the viewer who doesn't watch this with the sense of humor.

I'm a huge fan of the original SKYLINE, a low budget science fiction thriller set in and around an apartment subjected to a worldwide alien invasion. This belated sequel is a different beast all together, an international sci-fi action production which features none of the same cast, although a couple of the characters return. It's a mixed beast for sure, and a film that shouldn't really work all that well; certainly it has a certain sense of familiarity about it that prevents it from being as much fun as the first. However, I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this. The first half is all about Frank Grillo (quickly establishing himself as one of the most interesting action stars of our generation) attempting to escape brain-hungry aliens and save his son in the process. The second half shifts to Laos, actually filmed in Indonesia, and becomes a martial arts production of sorts. The CGI is cheap at times but certainly effective, while the action never lets up. I should say that it's impossible for me to dislike a film which features no less than two actors from the RAID films (Iko Uwais and Yayan Ruhain) and gives them a chance to kick some extraterrestrial backside.

Mark Corley (Frank Grillo) finds himself on a stalled subway as the alien invasion begins. LAPD cop Audrey (Bojana Novakovic) tries to keep the group on the train but they insist on leaving. Mark barely saves his hypnotized son Trent from being pulled up to the alien spaceship. The survivors travel along the underground.

If the original is a B-movie, this is basically a C-movie. This follows a different group of survivors during that same assault. In the original, I found the last part to be problematic. This movie takes that last part and just keeps going. One also has to remember the red eyed alien from the original and his pregnant girlfriend. The brain thing really doesn't make logical sense. In the original, I took it as poetic license similar to aliens draining our blood in "War of the Worlds". I can't do that this time around since this builds a complete premise around it. At least, it's not a computer virus but it's not that far. For an alien futurism combat, there is way too much hand-to-hand fighting. This has its fun but I can't take it seriously.