A group of five hip young things, headed by the charmless Max Minghella, find themselves in Moscow, stranded after a bizarre alien invasion wipes out nearly the entire city, leaving them to desperately find a way to survive. They evade aliens, rally other survivors, and eventually try to make their big escape. The film really isn`t anything more than that. How such paper-thin scripts continue to get the green light from studio executives continue to confound us.
As the novelty of the dazzling effects start to wane as the movie progresses, it becomes increasingly clear what the problem of the film is: there isn`t a single character that you care about, and so it really is hard to care when a character dies. Some characters are actually likeable, but we don`t get to see much of them, and most of the main cast are either just annoying or dull as dishwater, such that it`s hard to really want to root for them. The script is so shoddy such that by the time you come to the end of the movie, you realise that you still don`t know or care about any of the survivors.
You know how crummy the writing is when you know you`d have enjoyed the movie more if the characters talked less. The movie, while largely humourless, might get you laughing in derision, with its ridiculously stilted dialogue. “No human society can exist without booze or religion, spouts Ben (Minghella), “that`s why I drink religiously. Not to be outdone by such witticisms, his friend Sean (Emile Hirsch), comes out with his own later, as he proclaims, “I`m just trying to keep my freakout on the inside! And so are all of us, really.
Summary: The Darkest Hour packs a few brilliant money shots with beautiful special effects and genuine suspense, yet with its paper-thin plot and barely-there acting there just isn`t enough to prop up these dazzling set pieces.
Rating: 2/5 Raymond Tan