Sci-fi used to look campy and feature inept dialogue. They called that era “the early 1950s.” Ever since, science fiction has grown up immeasurably. First, there were the advances in storytelling, thanks in large part to TV shows like The Twilight Zone and Star Trek, which had to find ways around the visual limitations of the time. Then the special-effects era was ushered in, and soon enough, sci-fi was boldly going where no man had gone before—so Skyline is a clear and unnecessary step back. It’s a cheap-looking alien-invasion flick, and a year after District 9 accomplished so much more in so many ways, there’s just no reason to revisit the era of science fiction that couldn’t think bigger.