Dark Skies - C+

Rated PG-13, 95 minutes

Unoriginal "Dark Skies" provides a few chills, muddled story

The mildly chilling but flat new supernatural thriller "Dark Skies" (a bad title by the way) treads familiar territory, and not necessarily in a good way. Sure, there a few well-staged, creepy moments but the muddled, unoriginal script raises more questions than it answers. Young suburban couple Daniel (Josh Hamilton) and Lacey Barret (Keri Russell) witness an escalating series of disturbing events involving their two sons (Dakota Goyo and Kadan Rockett), they realize they're targeted by an unimaginably terrifying and deadly force that could break apart their family. Written and directed by Scott Stewart ("Priest," "Legion"), "Dark Skies" has a sinister, creepy tone to it but it ends up a mash-up of other things you've seen: part "X-Files," part "Paranormal Activity" with a splash (or should I say twist?) of M. Night Shyamalan for good measure. The talented Russell (currently seen in the cable TV show "The Americans"), an underrated actress, grounds the film well with stage actor Hamilton (not to be confused with the pro baseball player) and she is by far the most memorable part of the movie, bringing some real emotion (not to mention head banging) to the confusing story. The best part is the initial act, when creepy things start to happen. Then it takes a cheesier turn in the second act when they go to see "an expert," an exceedingly mellow J.K. Simmons (best known as Chief Pope from the TV show "The Closer"), who matter-of-factly lays it all out for them in "X-Files" manner but only raises more questions (mainly, why do these beings target children?). I didn't mind the Shyamalan-flavored twisty ending, but that is essentially an unmemorable extension of Shyamalan's own 2002 "Signs," back when he made good movies. "Dark Skies" has a few good qualities: the lovely Russell, some tense moments and a refreshingly light load of special effects and blood, but otherwise this a collection of a few close encounters we've already had at the box office.

Wes's Grade: C+