Stream It Or Skip It?

Watch the Skies (now streaming on Amazon Prime Video) ran a new-tech gauntlet so English-speaking audiences don’t have to read subtitles. Originally released in its native Sweden in 2022 under the title UFO Sweden, the movie was recently re-released by XYZ Films with a fresh AI-enhanced version that morphs Swedish-language lip-flapping to better fit the original actors’ re-recorded English dialogue. The result is tidier than a traditional awkward un-matchy-matchy dub; too bad that novelty can’t buoy the rest of the film above a fairly standard are-they-out-there? X-Files-y action-thriller.

The Gist: This movie kinda reverse-engineers the Close Encounters of the Third Kind plot by opening with the dad disappearing – via alien abduction? NO ONE KNOWS FOR SURE – then following his teenage daughter as she tries to figure out what happened to him. Uno (Oscar Toringe) was a member of UFO Sweden, a group of nerdy schmientific semi-wackos who aren’t quite the Lone Gunmen but also aren’t quite in step with mainstream society, and are dedicated to entertaining the idea that we might not be alone here in the universe. Denise (Inez Dahl Torhaug) was just a little kid when Uno went AWOL, leaving her orphaned and in foster homes. Eight years later, it’s 1996, and she’s a hacker who can rig a keycard to a GameBoy and pick electronic locks with it. She’s busted enabling a group of fellow teens in a vandalism spree, picked up by Tomi (Sara Shirpey), a cop and big-sis type who buys Denise a hot dog and gives her advice instead of charging her with trespassing and destruction of property. She feels for the kid, and you probably would too.

One night, a crotchety ol’ farmer is forking some hay out in his barn when a car comes flying out of nowhere and crashes through the wall, nearly killing him. As in, literally flying. Cars don’t move like that. They roll along the ground, not whoosh through the air. Curious. It’s empty. It’s also a red Saab just like the one Uno used to drive. Again, curious. Denise pokes around when the authorities aren’t looking and bumps the stereo and the tape in the deck plays the exact same song Uno played for her (‘Forever Young’ by Alphaville, if you’re wondering). CU. RI. OUS. Could Denise reunite with her father? What we’re saying here is, there’s a chance.

Denise believes this occurrence has something to do with aliens – it’s the only logical conclusion, really, especially if you’re in this movie – and therefore reconvenes with the old UFO Sweden gang, led by Lennart (Jesper Barkselius), who lost his job at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI) after trying to assist Uno’s UFO research, which drew connections between UFO visits and unusual weather. There’s a lot of blahblahblah about weather patterns and stuff in this movie, so gird yer loins appropriately, folks. Lennart and the dork squad stumble over secret SMHI shenanigans led by Kicki (Eva Melander of Border fame). Is there some otherworldly shit going on here? Between the bizarre red streaks in the sky and some Unexplained Phenomena, e.g., the gauges and radio in the VW-bus UFO-squad dorkmobile going haywire, it sure seems to be so.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Close Encounters (aforementioned), The Vast of Night (similarly scrappy, far better), Contact (for the father stuff) and Interstellar (I still don’t understand why this perfectly cromulent film is so heavily revered by some people) are the big ones here, but Watch the Skies matches none of their ambition.

Performance Worth Watching: Torhaug is a capable lead, earnest and spunky in a ’90s pop-punk kind of way. The screenplay just doesn’t give her much to do beyond familiar character tropes.

Memorable Dialogue: “Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes the possible scenario of collective black holes – a so-called wormhole!” – Kicki gets extra-expository

Sex and Skin: None.

Our Take: Watch the Skies is slick in its presentation, with excellent visual effects and editing, and crisply shot and assembled action sequences. It’s highly competent. It’s just not particularly rousing or original – the screenplay never transcends being an amalgam of its influences and the characters are off-the-rack types ranging from the Mildly Delinquent Orphan to the Initially Skeptical Adult Ally and the Ragtag Crew of Misfits who rally in support of the protagonist. The only character with any potential is Tomi, trapped as she is between her reasonable police duties and sympathy for Denise, but her destiny is to be a cog in a plot that never aspires to surprise its audience.

With its X-Files-inspired score laced with throwbackish synths, bevy of montages and generic absent-dad teen angst, the film doesn’t seem to be interested in doing anything other than warming up genre leftovers until they’re bland, dry and chewy. As a protagonist, Denise is a one-note by-any-means-necessary sullen teen who tends to make selfish decisions without considering the consequences, and lacks the charisma to court our sympathies. I was bored and underwhelmed by Watch the Skies, which doesn’t boast the thematic oomph to match its well-considered construction. It’s depressingly earthbound.

Our Call: Watch the Skies is a rock-solid movie that gets the job done, but it needs to do more than that to be worth nearly two hours of our attention. SKIP IT.

Where To Stream Watch The Skies

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John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.