The Darkest Hour is an american movie released in 2011. It is a science fiction thriller set in Moscow during a massive alien invasion. The movie follows a group of young people who are trying to survive in the city while the aliens are attacking. The movie is full of action and suspense, and the acting is very good. The movie is also very well-made and the effects are very realistic. Overall, The Darkest Hour is a very enjoyable and exciting movie.
Hmm, aliens and American teenagers in Moscow, not the most likely scenario for a big budget, special effects laden movie, surprisingly though it very nearly works… Nearly.
The Darkest Hour has some good components to it, for example: the aliens. They’re not your usually grotesque type (like Giger’s Alien) or the massively advanced tech type (ala Independence Day). These are electromagnetically based aliens that can travel around invisible and have the ability to disintegrate a human body in the blink of an eye. It’s a novel idea and its utilised well by the storyline though it does get a bit boring eventually staring at aliens that aren’t ‘there’. However, I don’t think i’ve quite seen aliens like this before, certainly nothing springs to mind at the time of writing this review. Perhaps the closest would be the ghost aliens from Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.
The movie’s characters are pretty lame to be honest, stereotypical, run of the mill… Boring even. This isn’t so much the fault of the actors in my opinion, who do a relatively decent job with the script they’ve got. We’ve seen these kind of characters like a billion times and even the best actors in the world would be hard pressed to make them interesting.
The movie isn’t very scary, there is no gore (no true gore anyways) and it feels very long winded and drawn out in parts. Needless to say being a sci-fi horror you kind of hope that it could be at least be a little bit scary but this movie in no way had me squinting my eyes from the screen. Not good.
The Darkest Hour, potentially, could have been a great movie if they had created better characters and made better use of the Moscow locality. As it stands you’ve got a movie that just isn’t up to scratch in many departments even if it does have interesting aliens and good special effects. So, sorry but this one isn’t getting a recommendation.
Synopsis
The Darkest Hour is a 2011 American science fiction thriller film directed by Chris Gorak and produced by Timur Bekmambetov. The film stars Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, and Rachael Taylor. It tells the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow after an alien invasion.
The film opens with a group of friends, Sean (Hirsch), Natalie (Thirlby), Skyler (Minghella), and Anne (Taylor) enjoying a night out in Moscow. They are suddenly interrupted by a massive alien attack that completely destroys the city. The group is able to take refuge in a nearby subway station, but they quickly realize that they are not alone.
As they try to figure out what to do next, they are joined by another survivor, a young man named Maxim (Bekmambetov). Maxim is able to tell them that the aliens are not just attacking Moscow, but the entire world. The group decides to try and find Maxim’s family in the hope that they will be able to help them find a way to safety.
The film follows the group as they journey through the war-torn city, fighting off the aliens and trying to stay alive. Along the way, they must contend with not only the deadly aliens, but also the fact that there are other survivors who are not as friendly as they are.
The Darkest Hour is a suspenseful and action-packed thriller that will keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end.
Movie Details
Director: Chris Gorak
Writers: Jon Spaihts, Leslie Bohem, M.T. Ahern
Actors: Max Minghella, Emile Hirsch, Rachael Taylor, Olivia Thirlby
Release Year: 2011