Originally appeared in Cinema Sentries
Skyfire is directed by Simon West, a filmmaker with a not-so-good track record. Two out of his previous four films have a score of 0% on Rotten Tomatoes, while one stands at 32%, and the last one has no score. The filmmaker’s most well-received work in the previous decade is The Expendables 2, which itself is far from a perfect movie. With this in mind, I knew Skyfire wouldn’t be the next 2001: A Space Odyssey. In fact, I didn’t expect it to be a watchable fare. Surprisingly, it is far from unwatchable. It’s no 2001, but it ain’t Gun Sky or Stolen either. It exists somewhere between disposable fun and cheesy entertainment, which itself is a compliment for a Simon West film.
It is everything you may expect from a disaster film. Not a thing more. It’s almost like the writers are reading your mind and do the bare minimum to subvert your expectations. You get exactly what you get. Every jump, every boom, every character movement, and even dialogue, for that matter. Not once does the film go break the cliche, nor does it try to, It’s content with its mediocrity and it may work for those who seek comfort in a film, never to expect it to surprise them.
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