The Darkest Hour (** out of ****)

The Darkest Hour is a film that I had such low expectations of going in I ended up quite liking it. So in terms of entertainment value it's not actually a bad film at all. In terms of story, suspense and believability it is the complete opposite. Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) are in Moscow to propose a social network venture. They meet Natalie (Oliva Thirby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor) in a night club when as luck would have it, aliens invade. These invaders are cloaked in a electromagnetic field that makes them invisible to the naked eye but cause electronic devices to react in their presence. I actually liked the actors in the film so perhaps personally I overlooked boring characters here. The film goes for a mix of apocalyptic atmosphere (ala 28 Days Later) and the simple alien fighting genre. Moscow in ruins is pleasing to the eye for apocalypse junkies such as myself. Perhaps if the aliens didn't look like Pokemon I'd have been drawn into the world more. Then again it's not great in the first place. I had a decent amount of fun watching though (some russians caused me to laugh hysterically due to their getups). If you don't examine the film and turn off your brain then fun times are ahead. Of course I couldn't do that and hence the poorer rating.

** out of ****