A One Mann’s Movies review of “Watch The Skies” (2025).
Original title: UFO Sweden.
When you go to stream a foreign language film, what is your weapon of choice? The subtitled version or the dubbed version? I personally will always go for the subtitled version: I can’t bear to see an actor moving their lips in a manner contrary to the sound entering my ears. But all that is set to change with “Watch The Skies”, a neat little Swedish Science-Fiction film, first given a very limited release in 2022 but now back and rejuvenated for English-speaking audiences with some innovative AI-driven dubbing technology.
Review Contents:
“Watch The Skies” Plot:
8-year-old Denise (Lilly Lexfors) believes that her Ufologist father Uno (Oscar Töringe) has been abducted by aliens. Now grown up as a rebellious and tech-savvy teen, Denise pursues new evidence that leads her in a surprising direction with the enthusiastic amateurs at UFO Sweden.
Certification:
UK: 12A; US: PG-13. (From the BBFC web site: “Moderate injury detail, threat, violence.”)
Talent:
Starring: Inez Dahl Torhaug, Jesper Barkselius, Sara Shirpey, Eva Melander, Håkan Ehn, Isabelle Kyed, Mathias Lithner, Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson, Oscar Töringe, Lilly Lexfors.
Directed by: Victor Danell.
Written by: Victor Danell & Jimmy Nivrén Olsson.
Running Time: 1h 55m.
“Watch The Skies” Summary:
Positives:
- Some genuinely ingenious plot twists.
- The film does a lot with its money and looks amazing.
- Good cast, with Torhaug and Shirpey in particular have great screen presence.
- A fun little recurring motif!
Negatives:
- In multiple places, the plot doesn’t make a lot of coherent sense.
Review of “Watch The Skies”:
A really pleasant surprise.
I was an enormous fan of Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, which I saw on release when I was just 17 and which made a tremendous impression on me. If pushed, I will name the original theatrical cut of CE3K as my ‘Greatest Movie of all Time’. There have been many wannabes since then trying to capture the magic again, with some (“Midnight Special” comes to mind) being pretty good. But nothing can come close to CE3K. In what is really a doff of the cap to Spielberg, this film’s worldwide release title steals the tag-line from the 1978 classic – “Watch the Skies” (and in 1978, indeed I did!).
I was really pleased to find that this went off in a uniquely Scandi-direction. We never get to see an ‘abduction’ scene: the film is much smarter than to waste its limited budget on the over-use of dodgy spacecraft effects or to – in true Spielberg “Jaws” fashion – reveal its hand too early. Instead, we get pitched more of a mystery-thriller, with a government weather-tracking agency (SMHI, Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute) doing shifty things and our heroine Denise (Inez Dahl Torhaug) suspecting that there is dirty business going on. Alien presence is not felt with a Mother Ship over Devil’s Tower, but by magnetic anomalies and a curiously red-shifted version of the Northern Lights dancing in the sky.
High production values; great cinematography..
The film punches well for a ‘mid-budget’ film (the budget was reportedly $18m). In terms of setting, the film seems to be based around the middle of 1996 (given that Windows NT 4.0 is not yet officially available). With that timeframe in mind, the locations are all good and believable; the production design in the SMHI forest site is good (given that they pretty well destroyed it!); the SMHI headquarters looks impressive in a Scandi sort of way; and a whole heap of cars got written off in the well-executed car chases.
On top of this, the cinematography by Hannes Krantz is top-draw-impressive with some cleverly crafted Dutch Angle shots and impressive focus-pulls. A scene where Denise first sees a UFO, running towards the camera in a corn field, is classic Spielberg/Kaminski.
Some really clever twists.
I’ve seen many science fiction films and it takes something different to surprise me. But there were a couple of times in this when I gasped when I saw the audacity of where the story was going to go. Granted, there’s nothing new in the Sci-Fi garden and many of these elements are tropes used in films/TV series like “The X-files” (and I’ve seen “Stranger Things” referenced in comparison). (I could even draw comparison with a certain film classic, but I won’t mention which for reasons of spoilers – see the Spoiler Section below the trailer). But this film manages to juggle its elements in such a clever and engaging way that you can’t not be impressed.
The finale as well, although a little haphazard, is cleverly shot and includes a nice timey-wimey gag involving a knight that caught me by surprise.
There’s also a really fun little recurring motif in the film…. an easter egg, if you like. Did you spot it? I won’t spoil it by mentioning it here, but see the “Spoiler Section” after watching the film.
Well-rounded characters.
Surprisingly for a sci-fi like this, and putting it a cut above many, the film is first and foremost character led:
- Denise is a well-observed teen with attitude and her lack of tolerance with the self-indulgent UFO group is always bubbling just under her frustrated frown.
- Chairman of the group, and co-lead in the film, is Lennart Svahn (Jesper Barkselius): a man who should hold a massive grudge with Denise but who bottles it up in the interests of uncovering the truths he’s been searching his whole life. But even he has doubts. At one point he admits to Denise “It’s remarkable. I’ve spent my whole life searching for answers. And now I’m a bit afraid of what I’ll find.”
- Secretary Gunnar (Håkan Ehn) is really just there for the trappings of the Association and sees Denise as a disruption to his ordered and unchanging life.
- Chain-smoking Töna (Isabelle Kyed) adds comic relief with her wonderfully lugubrious Scandi-drawl;
- Karl (Niklas Kvarnbo Jönsson) is the clown of the group, believing in cosmic vibrations, ghosts and tin helmets.
The only one in the Association who doesn’t seem to have been given much of a character is Mats (Mathias Lithner) who is “the silent one”.
Outside of this group, we have police officer Tomi (Sara Shirpey), who starts on Denise’s side but then gets very much dragged into opposition with her, and Kicki (Eva Melander), the team leader of the government organisation, oozing X-files intrigue.
A strong ensemble cast.
Jesper Barkselius does a great job with the bespectacled Lennart. But it is Inez Dahl Torhaug that really impresses as Denise: Torhaug, 18-years-old at the time of filming and 21 now, really has terrific screen presence and (looking at her IMDB profile) I’m surprised she hasn’t been snapped up by Hollywood for a leading part in a Marvel movie or something. Also looking great on screen is 33-year old Sara Shirpey playing Tomi: the scenes with her and Torhaug are some of the best in the film.
Innovative Dubbing.
The new techniques employed in this film with the dubbing are superb. AI has been used to adjust the lip movements of the actors in order to match the dubbed soundtrack. I only learned this AFTER I’d watched the film and was completely fooled by it. While watching, I was puzzled that such an obviously Swedish film had been fully filmed in English as its ‘first language’. But it clearly hadn’t!
I know there has been much furore about the use of AI in the movies. But here is a use-case that would seem to be a real game-changer for allowing international films to be pitched to English-speaking audiences in a mainstream way. I find this prospect genuinely exciting.
But too much of the plot fails to make sense.
Where the film broke down for me is in some of the plotting which failed to make sense to me. Again, this is all massive spoiler territory, so this discussion is held for the Spoiler Section that follows the trailer below. It’s a shame this was the case, but the film had built up enough goodwill with me that I STILL gave it three-and-a-half stars despite of that.
Summary Thoughts on “Watch The Skies”
The dubbing trick alone makes this an historically interesting film. But given, in addition, that the film is well-crafted, well-acted, intriguing and engaging, then this is one to watch out for. It’s showing in the UK from July 11th in selected Showcase Cinemas. Recommended, and I will be planning to go and see it again on the big screen if I can.
Where to Watch it (Powered by Justwatch)
Trailer for “Watch The Skies”:
The trailer is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7onngmmMZhA.
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