The Darkest Hour (2011)

Having watched the trailer I was curious to see the movie. But I did not expect it to be good.It seemed silly, and it is, but in the end, I found it to be quite entertaining (B-movie style).The alien idea is outrageous and a lot of the events and characters are outrageous & cheesy. I especially liked the depiction of the Russian guys (hilarious).I'm not sure if the movie was intended as a serious thing or more as a satire, but it does have some WTF & humorous moments, mixed with some pretty sad deaths (some unexpected).They even tried to inject some scientific elements to fight the aliens, a rare thing in that type of movies.The actions of the characters don't make much sense, they act fairly stupidly & mostly survive because of "luck" (also know as "because the story must go forward").The sets & effects were not bad.In summary, as a B-movie, it's entertaining.

Its obvious with respect to this movie that some of the movie industry corps/competitors have flooded it with bad ratings, to keep it beat down. The producers just didn't have the money moxy to retaliate with their own bought package reviews--Its not actually a ten, but closer to an honest 7--But since its been witch burned I went ahead and pumped up the rating--If you like action sci fi, this is a must see--I need ten lines to get a publish, so will say it was nice to see the movie give a nod to Moscow and toss in some Moscow-Russian pride, its not just USA folks who can kick alien butt.

"The Darkest Hour" has some interesting ideas that make up for its low budget, but it's crippled with bad dialog and a lame story. Ben (Max Minghella) and Sean (Emile Hirsch) are traveling to Moscow for work purposes and while at a nightclub they meet two English-speaking ladies (what are the odds?) Natalie (Olivia Thirbly) and Anne (Rachel Taylor). Things are going well when all of a sudden ALIEN ATTACK! An invisible otherworldly attack force is laying siege on our planet and our characters must scramble to survive. Even if they do, will there be anything left of our civilization? Some of the concepts, like invisible invaders that have no discernible weaknesses, having night and the darkness be a safer time to travel than daytime and having foreigners stuck in a country while an alien invasion takes place are all interesting and should make for some interesting plot points. My first problem with the movie is that it gets frustrating to have absolutely nothing to look at it when it comes to the antagonists. You would think that maybe there would be some variety in the creatures that are sent out to destroy mankind, with some initial, invisible invaders and then maybe some visible, not-so-threatening ground troops to add a bit of variety to the movie but it's the same thing all the way through. It's the kind of thing that would work on paper, or in a novel but feels cheap on the screen. It's true that what your mind comes up with is going to be a lot more frightening than anything that could be created in the movie but this doesn't aim to be a frightening horror movie, it's an action adventure film.To make things worse, the dialog is poorly written and the characters are flat and the plot is badly written. You can easily predict who is going to make it out alive and who is going to be disintegrated by aliens because all of the characters that die are either late additions to the movie, have no character development or perform some kind of desperate, heroic action before getting whipped out. This means that there's a big lack of tension throughout, hampered further by the fact that the movie's internal logic is very flawed. So these aliens are invisible, but you can kind of "see" them because they make any electronics go haywire (light bulbs light up, appliances get activated, that sort of thing). This means that during night time, you can spot them pretty easily if they pass by anything electronic. In an atypical move, darkness is your friend here. Characters spread light bulbs on the ground to check if the invaders are present or attach them to their own clothing so they can tell when danger is close. That's cool, but sometimes I found it to be inconsistent. I also thought that the way they handled the aliens' "monster vision" didn't really make a lot of sense. It appears to be consistent from scene to scene, depending on whether or not the characters are supposed to get spotted or get away safely. Despite the movie's low budget it does use the money it has well, except when we do finally get a reveal of what the invisible invaders look like. They look incredibly cheap and clearly created by computer effects (Another instance where practical effects would have been the better option).This felt more like a video game than an actual movie. The characters move from checkpoint to checkpoint, avoiding aliens, gathering weapons and meeting with allies while people get introduced and killed off in rotation. The main survivors acquire a special weapon about halfway through the movie and it's a big deal. They can finally start fighting back while everyone else has just been running this whole time. A couple of scenes later however, someone tells the protagonists that the gun can easily be replicated and they have a second one within the hour. Doesn't that sound like an "upgrade unlocked" feature in something you'd find on your Playstation? The characters act without logic, the aliens develop weaknesses whenever the plot is convenient and the explanations we get for the alien invasion and weaponry are complete non-sense. The story feels like a stock space invader plot and there's nothing that really make this stand out. I don't recommend this one. (On Blu-ray, November 4,2012)

Despite all the terrible reviews this wasn't a terrible movie. I actually quite liked it. Sure there are moments where you just have to go with it, (how did that girl end up in the bus when everyone else is in the river?) and the acting (expect for Hirshe) is not great but I've definitely seen worse.The premise of invisible energy absorbing aliens is pretty cool and the special effects are excellent -even if they're reminiscent of the beginning of War Of The Worlds, where Tom Cruise is running away (and through) everyone getting incinerated into ash. I also loved the fact that this took place in Moscow, super refreshing location, in fact that was the hook that got me to watch, I doubt I would have bothered if this had been another America saves the day in America movie. 5/24/14