Review of The Darkest Hour (2011) by Johnny N — 27 Feb 2013

A sci-fi drama which draws heavily on the influential ideas of John Wyndham's Day of the Triffids & The Midwich Cuckoos-& a healthy splash of War of the Worlds-but fails miserably in using them.

A worldwide electrical blackout is quickly followed by an alien invasion of swirling, jellyfish-like bio-electric organisms. Mankind is seemingly close to the brink of extinction, leaving pockets of scattered survivors.

With little characterisation, a poor script and gradually worsening FX, any feelings for the cast are negligible. Hirsch and Thirlby are talented actors-but are wasted here. it appears to be an expenses-paid holiday to Moscow, which explains there presence in this pile. Added to this, the aliens are nigh on invisible most of the time-characters running away from illuminated lightbulbs-set off by the electric field of the creatures. Unlike Spielberg's directorial brilliance in "Jaws" - the unseen threat here is lame. The audience for this kind of brain dead action need some fancy FX and biggest pieces to make up for it, right? Alas the budget only stretches to a few human vaporisations into ash. This in itself is a direct lift from death-ray FX work from War of The Worlds. Anything with scope, such as a crashed plane or boat smashed into a bridge- is nothing more than a glorified photoshop effort which Hollywood epics were doing just as well with background matte artists up to the 1970's anyway.

The final nail in the coffin is the contradictory pseudo-sci fi logic. At one point, Emile Hirsch hides under a car-the alien passes by as it can't sense him through it. Later on, in a similar scenario, he finds they can't sense him behind glass. There are quite a few deserted Moscow streets with hundreds of empty cars-with ashes of the dead everywhere. Where are the surivors?! All you need to do is sit in your car- you would be invisible and unharmed!

On other occasions, even though the hard core military are seemingly wiped out (you assume this as they are totally absent throughout)-iaverage Joes with basic armaments can hold them off!,.

The final, (final!) key issue is the ending-it's a rushed slap dash bolt on job. Get them to a safe rendezvous with a nuclear sub and begin to plot the demise of the aliens as they have accidentally stumbled onto a way of killing a handful of invaders. It's mugging its audience AND,quite worryingly, threatening a sequel too. Avoid-it doesn't even have the bombastic, flag saving stupidity of dumbness that is "Battleship" to put a smile on your face.