The Darkest Hour Reviews

Added this movie in wanna watch list some 8 years ago, finally I watched it today, well the movie is only OK .

Based on the admittedly flimsy evidence of films like “The Darkest Hour,” the best defense against invading aliens is to be as attractive as possible. Being one-dimensional doesn’t hurt, either, even if that particular character flaw can be safely blamed on whoever is responsible for the screenplay — in this case, Jon Spaihts. Given that he is also one of two writers credited on Ridley Scott’s much anticipated 2012 film (and possible “Alien” prequel) “Prometheus,” it is to be hoped that his lazy ideas were not equally apportioned between the two projects.


Because, really, how slovenly is it to use invisible aliens? If you’re going to tease us with nothing but pinwheels of light for three-quarters of the film, you’d better have one heck of a reveal up your sleeve. But if all you have is the equivalent of exploding garden gnomes, then your problems are greater than a disposable cast and a filming style as flat as the color palette. As one cement-gray scene follows another, audiences may find themselves rooting for the aliens, if only because their sparkly cloaking devices at least offer visual stimulation.

Working from a story that has been knocking around for years, Mr. Spaihts and his director, Chris Gorak, send two Internet entrepreneurs (Emile Hirsch and Max Minghella) to Moscow to finish a business deal. When they learn that a Swedish opportunist (Joel Kinnaman) has stolen their idea, our lads head to a nightclub to lick their wounds and distract themselves with perky female tourists (namely Olivia Thirlby and Rachael Taylor). There the four — and the scheming Swede — will remain for the next few days as fireballs from outer space transform most of humanity into untidy piles of cremains.

While we wait for the core cast to be reduced to the requisite breeding pair, we have time to ponder the pointlessness of the Moscow setting, chosen primarily to allow the filmmakers access to stock Russian characters — like the crazy inventor and the band of armed-to-the-teeth partisans — and exotic architecture.

“The audience will enjoy it and will feel it’s something new,” Timur Bekmambetov, one of the film’s producers, assures us in the publicity notes, but I wouldn’t be so confident. The audience is more likely to be wondering why Mr. Bekmambetov, the sometimes inspired mind behind the supernatural pictures “Night Watch” and its sequel, “Day Watch,” proved unable to inject life into this one.

Also a mystery is the apparent evaporation of Mr. Gorak’s freshman promise. When, in 2006, he wrote and directed the electrifying no-budget thriller “Right at Your Door,” you wondered what he might accomplish with more cash and greater resources. Now we know: despite a title grandiosely borrowed from Winston Churchill, “The Darkest Hour” is yet another depressing failure of imagination. Even with a technological gold mine at his disposal, all Mr. Gorak can conceive of is destruction.

“The Darkest Hour” is rated PG-13 (Parents strongly cautioned). Humans are atomized, and panties are flashed.

I was very skeptical to spend money on a movie with a 4.9 IMDb Rating but in the end of the day I went with my guts which never let me down. I saw the trailers back in summer 2011 and was already excited.

So what is the problem with this movie? Why does it have such bad reviews? The environment has a lot to with it. The movie is set in Moscow, the most actors are Russian and the 2 supposedly American girls are occasionally speaking with a British accent. This is probably a bit too much for a "patriot". The next point would be the acting, it is not that good and the special effects range from brilliant to not so brilliant but then again this is a 30 Million Budget movie, they city of Moscow went through hoops to make it happen by closing down main roads and entire quarters. The scenes when humans are getting killed are extremely well done an innovative and the whole plot is very exciting and doesn't give much time to breath.

If you aren't ignorant to let another country but the USA be the good guys for once you will simply love that movie, if your heroes must kiss the love interest in front of an American flag then forget about it.

Great movie, not so great actors but all in all enjoyable and 7 points for a new idea of an Alien Invasion.

Some spoilers here and there. The last part will have my final, spoiler-free verdict.

This movie wasn't TERRIBLE, but it wasn't GOOD either. It started out good, at least interesting, and exciting. The effects where pretty stellar and it had me thinking "Oh my god!" when people got killed by those cool alien badies.

But the quality declines pretty quickly after they set you up. The characters feel flat and uninteresting, for one, especially the jerkass Skylar. They also get very genre savy, making guesses as to how and why the creatures function that sound much too scientific for a bunch of kids out clubbing. Granted, two of those kids are apparently software designers or similar, but the almost complete lack of backstory makes it seem like they are all just random people in Russia who wouldn't know anything about electromagnetics.

After a while I began to question the sanity of our protagonists. There are two major incidents that bother me:

1) After learning that electric devices turn on when the invisible aliens get near they adorn themselves with lightbulbs. But then they decide to only go out in the night time, because it is too hard to tell if the aliens are near in the daylight. Wait now- you are surrounded by vehicles that have screeching alarms every time an alien is near. You are covered in lightbulbs which are not at all hard to see lit up even in the daylight, and you're in Moscow, a city filled with streetlights and billboards and neon signs, which are often on during the day anyway, and very visible. The creatures themselves behave exactly the same in the daytime and the night. Why would you hinder yourself traveling only at night? And this would be a minor issue if there wasn't a plot point later that hinges on them reaching a certain destination by a certain time and they pointedly waste valuable hours waiting until nightfall to get there.

2) (a few more spoilers in this one)
After finally getting to their destination, a submarine situated in the water of a nearby river, there is an explosion that causes their boat to capsize and everyone flies into the water. They swim to the surface and head for their destination, which is only about 200 feet away, but then Emile Hirsche realizes the main girl is gone. I assumed she drowned, but for some reason Emile's character thinks she's swam to shore far, far away from their goal and hidden out somewhere. Nevermind that they've been in the water for minutes at the most, giving her no time to get away without anyone noticing, but why would she head any direction besides the submarine anyway? But seconds later a flair is sent up from quite a ways from their location and after some ridiculous speeches by Emile (that don't really make any sense when you actually listen to them) they all take off to find her, adding another twenty minutes to the movie and probably bumping it up to the minimum amount of time to qualify for feature length.

Also, the aliens were cool until we got to see what they actually looked like. Then they were just disappointing, average aliens. The abstract spheres of light where much more impressive than their true forms, and it was a let down to see them, despite their interesting mode of transportation. Maybe I'm just tired of CGI alien takeover situations, but a more abstract antagonist would have been way neater and fresher than what they went with.


In closing: The Darkest Hour would make a good kid's movie. I don't remember how much cursing is in it, though they did star out the word "motherfucker" in the subtitles near the beginning, but otherwise it is not very entertaining to anyone who has seen many movies at all. It is almost entirely bloodless, no gore, not scary, the characters never hit any emotional depths, and there's a lot of pointless action and cool looking effects. Sounds like a good movie to transition kids 10-12 into more intense action and sci-fi movies without worrying about them being truly scared.

+points for so much actual Russian being spoken in Russia
+points for alien design (until the end)
-points (a lot of points) for being stupid for the sake of a longer movie and plot

Final verdict:
Wait until it's on DVD and rent it for family night.
4/10

Expected release Decemeber 23rd' 2011. Running through the movie trailer, movie seems to be quite intresting and I have added it to my "Wanna Watch" list. I hope watching it in 3D would be added fun, so brace yourself for the invisible arsonist, turning everything it touches to ash. Is there a place to run or a place to hide, fight for survival.