Skyline

Science fiction's explosive rise was sparked by fears of nuclear war. The threat of not just nuclear proliforation, but nuclear devastation was (and is by the way) real to the American Public and suddenly the power and alienation of modern science was an emotional reality that needed to be discussed and understood in a way that only fiction can access.
Well, Skyline manages to completely skirt that, along with any other semblance of human emotion, which, at the end of the day, really spells make or break for even the most special of special effects blockbuster.
I've felt more excitement when turning the screw on the two quarter prize machine. Go ahead, kill off these meaningless characters who are all holding desperately on to their completely dysfunctional relationships as well as to the hate that manages to alienate them from each other. Is this a reflection of modern American life? No. In no way. Sorry. Maybe I'm an optimist (or just not an aggressive enough pessimist) but I just don't see it.
This movie looks like a band of trustafarians pissing through their greatgrandchildren's trust funds. These beautiful special effects were wasted. Broadcasting H.G. Wells had a powerful effect because of the delivery and composition of the material, dare I say the art. In Skyline, these elements were an afterthought to a movie which spent most of its time trying to figure out how to out-cool itself, which is probably why it's nineties arm tatoos, 1988 graffitti artist drawings, and Biggie hot tub party had no resonance at all. Yeah, Independence Day was a pretty cool movie at the time, and good for Will Smith's career. And, hey, remember the nineties... But remember also, that was in a slew of end-of-the-earth movies, along with death by meteorite, death by volcano, death by tornado, and death by global warming to name a few.
In Skyline, spoiler alert but don't let it stop you, the characters are much more fantastic than the idea of machines descending on earth cities to harvest human brains to run their machines.
Science fiction, if it is indeed suffering any decline in readership, is not suffering because the issues of science affecting the emotional reality of modern life are changing. Rather, SF, and reading in general, is suffering from a lack of faith in the resilience and strength of the human identity, of human adaptability, of human knowledge, and yes, remember the Beatles, of love.
This was a sad, boring movie. A sad, expensive to make, wasteful, boring movie. This will reflect poorly on SF as a genre though it illustrates almost nothing of what makes SF great.