Dark Skies (2013)

"Hey son, did you copy this drawing from Insidious, Sinister or Mama?"

"Psst... should I draw aliens or demons tonight? Over."

At a glance:

Top-of-the-flops director Scott Charles Stewart (remember Priest and Legion?) returns to try again in a PG-13 sci-fi thriller called Dark Skies (no obvious link to the 80s TV series of the same name), starrin Keri Russell (Waitress) and Josh Hamilton as the Barretts - nervous parents on the forefront of an alien invasion into their suburban home. There's J.K. Simmons too, playin Agent Mulder with a fedora. Gee thanks, you overly-informative long trailer, you.

Bad news on the doorstep:

I believe the lesson in this movie and contemporaries like Insidious, Sinister and Mama are all painfully the same - if shit goes down in your house and you don't know what it is, just check the kids' drawings. Oh look, it's a ghost/demon/alien. Mystery solved. Saves us 45 minutes of diagnostics. The movie? It had a few promisin set pieces but is undone by an unconvincin, rather straightforward resolution. There's an unexpected theme of social anxiety from world economic collapse in the script but this does little for the story. By and large, derivative and unrewardin. As the end credits rolled, the woman next to me at the Toronto premiere went: "Huh? That's it!?!?"

Keri Russell looks ready and able but this movie ain't gonna do much for her.

Perennial wonderment:

Recognise the older kid with Bieber hair? That's Dakota Goyo, the kid in Real Steel with Hugh Jackman.

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Undeservin of its wide release. Another underwhelmin also-ran. Rent it if you're bored.★★

Bonus material:

"Mummy, if the aliens come, would you please wear a bra?

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