Watch the Skies Review: Retro Sci-Fi Charm With a Futuristic Twist on Dubbing

Watch the Skies, the English-language release of Sweden’s UFO Sweden, is a delightful blend of retro sci-fi and emotional adventure, drawing heavy inspiration from the Spielbergian heyday of the 1980s and 90s. Teen heroes, government conspiracies, mysterious disappearances, and a nerdy UFO club; this is familiar terrain, but it’s handled with genuine affection and a surprising emotional core that sets it apart from most modern nostalgia plays. What makes this release especially interesting, though, is the inclusion of Flawless’s TrueSync AI dubbing, a tech innovation that syncs the actors’ lips to the English audio in real time. It’s impressive, immersive, and occasionally uncanny… but whether it enhances the experience or distracts from it depends largely on your expectations going in.

Set in the 1990s in small-town Sweden, Watch the Skies follows 15-year-old Denise, a rebellious teenager who believes her long-missing father was abducted by aliens. After a police chase lands her in trouble, she finds unlikely allies in a ragtag UFO enthusiast club. What begins as a fringe obsession quickly spirals into a larger mystery involving shadowy agencies, strange phenomena, and a series of high-stakes discoveries that could change everything.

From a story perspective, this is nothing radically new, but it doesn’t need to be. The film leans into its genre tropes with love and confidence, creating a vibe that feels more like The Goonies meets E.T. than anything resembling modern sci-fi. There’s action, heart, a little teen rebellion, and just enough government paranoia to keep things ticking. The pace is breezy, the characters endearing, and the sense of place (rural Sweden in the dying days of the 20th century) is refreshingly distinct.

What gives Watch the Skies a truly unique edge, though, is the TrueSync AI dubbing technology. Developed by Flawless, this system digitally modifies actors’ facial movements to match dubbed dialogue. In theory, it bridges the awkward gap between foreign-language films and English-speaking audiences without the usual disconnect between lips and audio. In practice? It’s… pretty impressive. If you didn’t know it was an AI-generated lip sync, you might not notice… at least not consciously. The technology isn’t perfect, and trained eyes will occasionally pick up subtle stiffness in the mouth movements or odd syncing in rapid dialogue. But for most viewers, especially those not actively scrutinizing every frame, it’s surprisingly seamless.

A big part of why it works as well as it does is the decision to have the original Swedish actors voice their English lines. Hearing English spoken with natural Swedish accents feels authentic to the setting and helps preserve the characters’ emotional delivery. It’s a smart move that prevents the uncanny valley effect often caused by disembodied voices that feel disconnected from their physical performances.

That said, the dub-versus-sub debate isn’t going away anytime soon, and for purists, there’s still a case to be made for the original Swedish audio with subtitles. Some of the nuance of intonation and performance gets flattened in translation, and while the tech might blur the line between languages, it doesn’t replicate the full emotional resonance of a performance delivered in an actor’s native tongue. If you’re the type of viewer who cherishes authenticity over convenience, the subtitled version might still be the better option.

Visually, the film is modest but stylish, leaning on practical effects, moody lighting, and late-20th-century tech to create its atmosphere. It doesn’t try to outdo Hollywood blockbusters, but instead builds intimacy through grounded cinematography and tangible settings. There’s a worn-in quality to everything, from the cluttered interiors of the UFO club to the grainy monitors they pore over, that helps sell the world.

The performances are consistently strong, especially from newcomer Inez Dahl Torhaug as Denise, who anchors the film with a raw, determined energy. Her chemistry with the supporting cast, particularly the oddball members of the UFO club, adds warmth and heart to what could’ve easily been a formulaic ride. The script is efficient, if occasionally predictable, but the emotional beats land where they need to.

Watch the Skies succeeds not just as a throwback adventure, but as an earnest, emotionally driven sci-fi mystery with a lot of heart. Its use of AI dubbing technology is genuinely fascinating and mostly well-executed especially since it retains the original actors’ voices. Whether that makes it a better watch than the subtitled version will depend on personal preference, but it’s hard not to admire the ambition. For fans of old-school family sci-fi or curious cinephiles interested in where tech and storytelling intersect, this one’s worth keeping your eyes on.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5.

Watch the Skies is in theaters May 9th.

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