If you liked Aliens. . .pass on this one.
587801
The film seemed to be a oddly strung together string of shocking scenes.  Together they didn't really make sense.  Alone they were uninteresting and more dramatic than logical.  This almost seemed like a spoof of the alien saga.  I could have sworn the "Wayland is my father scene" was a crude attempt as a Star Wars joke.
2524265
Boy am I glad this one was free.  It doesn't qualify as a novel or even really a novella in terms of length.  Amy, the main female character, is WAY too accepting of Z being an alien.  Not only that but she acts more like someone in a porn film than a normal person. There is no concern about possible interstellar sexually transmitted diseases much less the potential of pregnancy with a hybrid alien child.
Z himself seems odd for a supposed scientist. Why is he taking the human back to their home and not back to his own where one would suppose he had some sort of recording system to assist in his sexual research?
If you are looking for a short story with hot sex, minimal plot and characters that are rather flat this isn't a bad deal for free.
4024175
THIS REVIEW HAS A COUPLE OF 'MINOR SPOILERS'. BEGINNING WITH THE FACT THAT THIS MOVIE HAS A WHOLE LOT OF MAJOR SPOILERS.

After having read about five good reviews and five bad reviews on this film, I decided to give it a shot, based on one reviewers summation that "It is what it is: an alien invasion film with a thin plot, bad acting, but decent visuals; just like most modern alien invasion films."

That's fair. And I could have lived with that. But "Skyline" has one of the most poorly scripted story-lines, with some of the ABSOLUTE WORST ACTING that I have ever seen.

I knew that I had wasted my money, when the beautiful party people who were the focus of the film, awoke to aliens invading, and weren't even shocked or surprised that aliens from outer space were invading earth and vacuuming people up into their space craft.
They looked out at the situation and calmly exclaimed, "Oh my God. All those people."
Huh? What? No shock? No horror? No frantic scrambling around and screaming as they realized that earth had been invaded by aliens, while trying to figure out how they were going to escape and survive?

And actually, the general incongruity between the film's title and its subject matter, should have told me that the writers hadn't put any effort at all into creating and formulating even a semblance of an intelligent plot.

As a writer and a creative person myself, I hate to trash anyone else's creative endeavors. But this was bad. The story was just dumb. Plain and simple. I actually got to the point where I began to count the stupid comments and the mindless actions of the actors as a way to entertain myself. And the fact that they kept speaking of getting to a boat in a harbor which had a dozen monstrous spaceships hovering over it, and using that boat to escape the city, while the aliens were vacuuming up everything in that vicinity, just really made no sense at all.

Considering that this movie was out and out stupid, and the aliens liked to eat brains, the writers should have named this movie "BRAINLESS".

But! It does have some really cool monsters and some decent special effects: which account for about ten minutes worth of the 90 minutes that the film runs.
4946088
Attack The Block is flat out one of the worst alien movies ever made!  This movie could've been great, but it was ruined by bad acting and a storyline that isn't very good.  If you're going to make a movie in the dark of night then please don't make aliens so dark that they blend in with the background.  You can see them (not very well) and tell the difference, but it bugged me the entire time.  The green glow that comes from their mouth is kind of cool looking, but that's it.  If you see an alien would you get your buddies together and try to take them out?  I'd say "No!"  Forget calling the cops, this little group of thugs who are neighbors think they can do better with fireworks, a sword, and a bat.  I don't recommend this movie to anybody.  Lastly, if you're buying this because you're like me and saw Nick Frost is in it, think again.  Nick is in the movie for only about 5 minutes and maybe says 20 words that don't even make you laugh.  Save your time and money and buy something else.
1098718
So this book was my monthly Prime rental pick. It had a decent enough story, but I plain old didn't like the main character, so thus it's hard to give it anything more.

The story followed around a futuristic spook as he went around recruiting military and scientific folk on a mission to save the world. Humanity is getting attacked by advanced, genetically modified humans, so one last ditch plan that the military has boiled up is to go far out into deep space to try to find a derelict alien space ship and get it back to Earth.

The setting, for the most part, is a smaller spaceship and a few planet locales. This would usually equate into an OK sci-fi story, but unfortunately all of the characters felt like cardboard cutouts...no real personalities at all. The main character went back and forth between being a stern, spec-ops type of a leader to a common scrub macking on the ladies. Who wants to read about a scrub?

Yeah I think the premise of the story was good but the author spent way too much time on the backstory of the uninteresting characters and too little time on the background of the creators of the lost starship. Like with many books, there was too much information at the beginning and it didn't leave enough for the ending.

The book wasn't a complete waste of time though. While reading it some parts were very engrossing while others were just lame or went by way too quick. There just wasn't enough development in the characters or story to make it a memorable read. The author's writing was decent with regards to sentence structure and grammar, but there wasn't any pull that convinced me to read more other than just wanting to finish the story.
3454935
The movie was terrible-very, very bad.  Besides having two high quality actors (Harrison Ford and Daniel Craig) the plot was almost too simple for the average viewer and very corny.  I understand mixing the two genres of western movies and sci-fi flicks probably hasn't been done before but this wasn't the best way to go about doing it.  The aliens and their ships did seem pretty cool but theres very well done CGI in many other sci-fi movies plus they didn't show the aliens that clearly.  Olivia Wilde has been good in other movies but looked totally out of place and did a poor job of acting in this movie.  Overall though the plot, certain scenes in the movie, and poorly done scenery with CGI and the actors made it look to be a level right above "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" (A B-rated movie).  Way too overrated of a movie to say the least.  Shame on Hollywood for producing this one.
4334300
I had high hopes for this book and was disappointed almost immediately from the beginning.  In no way could I believe the main male characters were from another planet. The writer flat out did not address as to how these aliens could assume human forms but then live for hundreds of years. The cross breeding between aliens and humans only takes the plot that much closer to incredulous story telling when the main female character suddenly realizes she's half alien and can do the eye glow thing like her boyfriend can.

These alien men -from planet SR44- all have the perfect physique and use alcohol to... I have no idea. They all seemed to drink like it was some show of manliness.  The contrivance only continues as key points and mannerisms are revealed.

There is a bit of foreshadowing that mentions these aliens can see the vampires that live among humans but that humans are oblivious to the supernatural's existence and once again it weakens this story of having any chance to be enjoyable.

 For a one time read, it was acceptable, but I have no interest in continuing with this series. Nor would I want to reread this story at a later date.  By the time I was half way through, I thought I was reading a fanfiction of JR Ward's Black Dagger Brotherhood series instead of an original plot.
476538
I don't know if aliens came here and jumpstarted our planet, but I don't think we know enough to say they didn't. If nothing else the topic almost always brings up interesting anthropological observations.

Except for this one. It doesn't bring up anything interesting except the Jurassic Park guy with the limited vocabulary and horrific understanding of indisputable elements that form the basis for all branches and disciplines of science. Within ten minutes the guy has relegated the term theory to the mental gray zone called a guess then moves directly into comparing the martian climate (as in the climate on the planet Mars) to the climate of the Earth as evidence Al Gore is trying to tax people for his own benefit.

The little fella is just all over the place and most of what isn't political commentary is paraphrased from much older research on the subject or smply a bunch of words strung together in a way that's consistent with a stroke or seizure.

I have to recommend you skip this show. It's really bad. Really bad on every level.
2139271
Not very well written.  A lot of unnecessary repetition, poor military tactics, unbelievable politics, and a poor premise.  Author attempts to use an alien species to wrap all this up, but it is ludicrous to think that a single planetary system that was just reduced from several billion people to a few tens of millions could stand up to a galactic empire of thousands of worlds.  the interpersonal relationships are all too pie in the sky wonderful and the character interactions lack depth or emotional content.  Generally, the alien species are interesting, but if you want to see how alternative societies could develop based on genetically diverse species, this book doesn't go there.
3107155
Don't get your hopes all up unless you're a Call of duty \ Bad Company 2 rusher king looking for a game of conquest. There is a couple curious scenes about who the aliens are, but to my surprise, they are just foot soldiers looking for action.  The technology they possessed total contradicted them to be fighting at all, and they acted much like someone being controlled in a video game, and not all that impressive. There is a snoozer scene about half way to the middle so be prepared to bring a nite-nite pillow.

The sound effects is what people are referring to as a 5 star movie.

That is 10+.

But as far as a storyline goes, they failed misserably in that dept.  The best thing about this movie is how they took the time to care for civillians!!!! I kept saying "come on"-  these poor civilans" are going to slow you down so cut them loose because the Alien dudes were bringing up the bossman unreal tournament gadgets.

What they need to do is make a saucer movie of us fighting the greys, complete with hyperspace and everything. That I'm still waiting for.  Maybe Hollywood thinks you have to blast it all up like a bunch of monkey's would do to sell the tickets.

I gave it 3 stars because I've had no urges to see it twice.
2540350
This book tried very hard to be the da Vinci code, but with aliens and weird science. About 1/4 through I was completely divested in the book, but decided to finish it since I had paid money for it.
3978892
Unlike Shyamalan's later films, which combine interesting atmospherics and weirdly menacing scenarios that are psychologically believable, this one is a run-of-the-mill alien invasion flick.  It starts off strong, with a mystery as to why aliens are choosing to make first contact with earth, which is evidenced by crop signs.  Gibson is a fallen preacher and widower; at first he is skeptical, then listens to his children and begins to get scared as more happens.  With his loss of faith, he feels there is nothing that can help, so is fatalistic and frightened when they turn out to have bad intentions.  By that point, the film has degenerated into such a cliche that there is nothing whatsoever interesting about it - no surprise actions or reasons, just facing the baddies by baseball-bat force.  I found this deeply disappointing, given the talent of the actors.  Gibson's inevitable spiritual rebirth is laughably predictable and unoriginal.

Not recommended except as background nonsense.
1720524
A group of Norwegians discover an abyss...the hard way and uncover something they need a person who specializes in frozen dead things...Enter Kate Lloyd (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) who is introduced while listening to "Men at Work." She comes along so this movie isn't all about men at work.

As it turns out, it is just another alien spacecraft and there is a frozen alien in the ice. Oh yes, there is also the proverbial storm on the way. The movie reminded me a bit of "Alien Hunter" which in turn reminded me of an earlier version of "The Thing."

The alien appears early in the movie and quickly gets filled with lead. If you have seen any of these films you know the rest of the story.

The "scientific" aspect was better than the previous films. I still didn't buy them performing the world's first alien autopsy and no one films it. The cells as viewed under a microscope was very primitive special effects, apparently they had blown their $8 million budget when it came time to create that scene and resorted to drawing pictures on cards and flipping them real fast. The rest of the special "Re-animator" type effects were fairly decent. Good one to see.

No f-bombs, sex, or nudity
4176028
Ok...we've all heard how bad it was and all that. That's fine in a review, but most of us kind of wants to know WHY it was so bad. I am going to start with the name of the alien's planet, Pyschlo. Now this is an obvious Earth term, so why in the hell would an Alien culture have this name for their planet? It defys common sense. Then we have the issue of the Alien's language. They are talking in English to us. Why? The directors, for realistic purposes, should have had the movie in sub titles at least. What I mean by that is the Alien's will speak in their so-called language, whereas we would read the english translation of it. It is too much to expect that the Alien's learned our language after nearly wiping us out. Why should they bother? After all, according to the film, we humans were really inferior to them. Furthermore, they even thought that dogs were our betters. Now this doesn't say much for the Alien's intelligence either, or our own in the movie. After 1000 years of being slaves, we all reverted back to cavemen-like days. I find that hard to believe. The few remaining people who survived that first attack of the aliens should have taught the succeeding generations of our knowledge. After all, knowledge is power, something the Aliens in this movie completely forgotten. However, to expect me to believe that we are so brillant as to know how to fly a fighter jet in a matter of days is completely idiotic. We're smart, but not that smart. These are all just basics of the movie that I am picking at. I can't believe the amount of intelligence that the Alien's DON'T show. As some of our other reviewers have said, by the way the Alien's acted, we would have been severely surprised if they even knew how to invent the toilet, let alone take over planets. It was like the Alien's honestly expected us to tell them everything, like we did not have one ounce of common sense for survival ourselves. And lastly, the plot is very poor. Granted, it does follow along rather smoothly in the movie, but the glaring errors of it destroys any beliefs that we might have had about it prior to watching it. No, we sci-fiction fans do not pretend to believe that everything we watch will happen just like that, or with technology that hasn't even been invented. But we do expect some common sense in a movie, and we didn't get it with this one. Watch it and you will come to appreciate the amount of stupidity that went into it. Unlike what some of the other reviewers are saying, I sincerely doubt the fact that Scientology had anything to do with the bad raves. It's just the movie itself.
2209193
Don't waste your time.  While there was an opportunity for a cool sequel here (and there are some ok visual effects - which is why I gave it 2* and not 1*), this one turns into a way too obvious attempt at building an extended ID4 universe.

Despite a decent cast (Jeff Goldblum, Liam "The Hemsworth Brother Whose Name I Never Remember" Hemsworth, Vivica A. Fox, Bill Pullman and the unhinged version of his character from the first ID4,ect.) it is this obvious attempt, along with the performance of the guy playing the grown son of Will Smith's character from the 1st film - the nicest thing I can say about his performance is that it was cringe worthy (it is that bad / makes you wonder how he got the role in first place) - that makes it difficult for one to want to finish the movie.
2023819
Definitely not Jurassic Park. The plot was thin and predictable. Star Lord, I mean Owen (Chris Pratt) and Corporate Woman (the stunning) Bryce Dallas Howard were negligent, self-involved and responsible for every death on the island... and also stock character archetypes we see in most action films - props to Howard for doing it all in heels. Far too many 'establishing/scenery' shots - we know you're on a beautiful island. Most of the movie felt disjointed and blocky. The owner of the park didn't seem that interested and more of a 'pet' project. Not enough actual science, far too much vague/implausible science. Not enough scare moments. So many interesting side plots that were not explored because of Star Lord and Corporate Woman whiny issues and 'tension'... Laura Derns character in Jurassic Park was so much stronger and empowered.

However - ALL the dinosaur scenes were AWESOME!!!... which is really the only reason we watch these films. To fill our imaginations with fantastic imagery and watch huge creatures battle it out and eat people.
1013980
Apart from its atmospheric use of Britain's Chislehurst Caves and a better-than-necessary cast, "Inseminoid" (1981) takes sci-fi horror to disgusting new lows. The comparisons to director Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979) are painfully inevitable . . . and inevitably unflattering. Presented by the one-and-only Sir Run Run Shaw.