The Darkest Hour

Starring: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachael Taylor, Joel Kinnaman
Directed by: Chris Gorak
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Horror, Science Fiction
2011

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: Two friends (Emile Hirsch, Max Minghella) travel to Moscow, where they find themselves in the middle of an alien invasion.

Review:

Tim: The Darkest Hour is a pretty sad attempt at an alien invasion movie. It certainly looked promising (well, maybe), but it simply does not deliver. It feels like a film that tries every trick in the book, but none of them work. In the end, this is a middling, forgettable little movie.

The central idea that the aliens are invisible is interesting. First off, invisible aliens haven't been done numerous times before. I'm interested, especially when we discover their ability to manipulate electricity. However, this is also a clever way to keep the budget in check. When we do finally get glimpses of the aliens, it just seems so absurd. They're flying around in these weird spheres, and it all just comes across as ridiculous. I like the attempt to be different, but I didn't like the cheap technique.

The film starts out promising enough. We're introduced to our four protagonists, and quickly, we get a pretty impressive display of strange orange lights falling from the sky. We soon realize they are aliens, and the invasion is on. The movie, unfortunately, quickly picks up cliche after cliche, without continuing the character development. The whole thing felt rushed. I'm not sure where the movie lost me, but it was fairly early on.

The setting of Moscow, Russia, is one of the biggest draws of the film. It's legitimately exciting to see aliens invade someplace besides New York or Los Angeles. I liked the Moscow setting, but that's not enough to separate this movie in a positive way. Still, bravo for thinking outside of the box.

I really didn't like how the film got so into the focused microwave gun, the electrical impulses, or whatever it was with the aliens. Maybe it was trying to ground it in real science, but it just came across as incredibly implausible. It's humorous that our heroes stumble upon the one man in Moscow who makes a giant microwave gun to stun the aliens.

The cast wasn't great. Emile Hirsch is a talented actor, but I couldn't figure out why he was in this film. It just seemed beneath him. Max Minghella was probably just happy to get the work. I actually thought Olivia Thirlby did a fairly good job, Unfortunately, the rest of the cast is lackluster.

I really, really like alien invasion movies. I'm always up for seeing one and I can be pretty forgiving. However, I do have standards, and The Darkest Hour doesn't meet any of them. It's a substandard, disappointing movie. It's average in every way and does very little that's particularly strong. I really wanted to like this movie, but it gave me no reason to.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 5.5



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