The beauty of going to see this was that I was the only person in the auditorium and that rarely happens. The downside was that it was freezing cold in the auditorium. The upside of that was I had on appropriate clothing due to the weather outside being cold too. Talk about wasting energy. It’s the heat that should be on, not the air conditioning. I hopped over to see this after seeing The Devil Inside. The credits for that movie are very slow and gave me time to kill. The rowdy bunch that went to see it left that auditorium in disarray and the usher asked over his radio if anyone could come and help. The prescreen for it ended around 8:45pm and he said the actual premiere was in 15 minutes so he needed to get the place ready for showtime. I was sitting there tweeting and realizing he was in a rush, I got up, hit the bathroom, and had to wait an hour in the hall for The Darkest Hour to begin at 9:45pm. There is irony in that situation, isn’t there?
To not be so obvious, I waited by the women’s restroom so ushers passing by would think I was waiting for my girl to finish relieving herself. I don’t have any significant other so sometimes you gotta use whatever tactics are available to you. The employee who let me in with my food to begin with saw me but he was rushing too. Apparently they were short staffed and didn’t pay me any mind considering I came in by myself. I have my own pair of RealD 3D glasses but I forgot them at home. Closer to showtime, I went into the auditorium and they had a fresh pair sitting there for people who needed them. I was the only one. I wish every time I went to the movies it was like that. Just me and my peeps or me and my sweetie (whenever that happens). I know it can be done for a cost but I ain’t willing to pay it.
The trailer for this movie made it seem interesting and it is. It’s not at all an original concept and the acting isn’t that great. Special effects are pretty good. It starts like a run of the mill horror movie by introducing the main characters and creating a situation where they all come together. In this case, it’s a vacation, a business meeting, and a club. This movie isn’t horror at all. It’s sci-fi. And surprisingly smart sci-fi but those displays of intelligence from the characters in the movie are delayed. For instance, when something happens and you figure it out at that moment, it takes a few minutes for that to be acknowledged onscreen. And when I say figure it out, the antagonists are aliens that feed on and emit energy. The visual effect used in the movie would make you think they detect people by a heat signature but that isn’t the case.
The movie is seriously flawed. When what is obviously something alien from space lands right in front of you, are you gonna surround it or are you gonna run and hide? Are you gonna try and touch the damn thing or are you gonna keep your distance until you know what it is you’re dealing with? I mention this because there are people in this movie that deserved to die. Characterizations weren’t well developed and I can’t stress that enough. Emile Hirsch’s character is the protagonist and he’s portrayed as someone who wings it. He knows how to improvise to get the job done. He just happens to have a level of intelligence that was never explained since he’s also initially portrayed as what basically amounts to an irresponsible skirtchaser. You’d think his responsible business partner would be the one who makes the good survival decisions but they got that backwards.
Insert the female counterparts. Sluts on the prowl for hot guys just like the guys on the prowl for hot girls in a foreign country. I’d say they’re accurately portrayed because the girls had absolutely no substance of any kind. One of them deserved to die and I was very glad that she did because she didn’t contribute anything to anyone. Nothing more than dead weight. Good riddance. The best line of the movie was when Hirsch said something along the lines of, “I didn’t travel to a foreign country to hook up with American girls.” You know what? He’s got a point. You’re not gonna travel to Spain for a hamburger and apple pie, are you?
Joel Kinnaman was a surprise. I’d only seen his work from The Killing and he did a good job in that so this was a different setting for him, including the slight accent. Another mistake in the movie (and they’re numerous) is when this particular group managed to hide from the aliens. They were in a room for days without leaving it. That meant the smell of ass, pussy, underarms, balls, and feet should have been overpowering after a while. But they showed them in that room, where there was food, as if none of those things mattered, much less having to shit and piss in that same room.
The motivation of the aliens was explained later and they were even shown. This has similar plot points compared to 28 Days Later and Resident Evil: Afterlife where survivors are being told via radio where safe haven was. The journey to that safe haven isn’t shown in any trailer that I saw. There’s a lot more to this movie than you think. I do think some things, like can be expected in a movie, happen too conveniently. Like when they’re saved by another group of survivors just in the nick of time and they just happen to discover someone who understands what the aliens are and has a device to stop them that the main cast manages to get their hands on. Other than language barrier, the movie being based in Russia doesn’t make any difference. They could have used stereotypical Russians for that group of survivors I mentioned but they failed to capitalize on that. Could have been some good Fist of the North Star anime-type moments out of that.
The movie does have rules and I do like that aspect. Again, it’s a smart movie. Like discovering how the aliens see humans, how to hide from them, and how to detect them since they can become invisible. Lots of good stuff here. But good comes with bad. Like knowing that bullets won’t stop them but you shoot at them anyway. Knowing you shouldn’t venture out alone but you do it anyway. Knowing you should listen to another chick that’s introduced that has survived but you go do your own thing anyway (and end up dying for it like a dumb ass). Another mistake is when they left the room to begin with. Since it was never shown, you’d think fresh water would be the first thing to seek out to drink and freshen up. But no, fresh clothes are what they seek first. I’m not sure about the weather in Russia but they made it seem pretty warm in this movie since people were wearing short sleeves and skirts.
The idea of a Faraday cage played its part in this movie. Lucky for me, I watch Fringe and an episode of that introduced it to me. While watching this, I already knew what was going on in a scene with a radio and with the electrician despite them explaining later what a Faraday cage was. At least they did explain it and didn’t leave people in the dark. The aliens do show different abilities as the movie progresses. The moments of tension were a bit too blatant, like the weapons created to stop the aliens not working when you’re being chased by one and you need to shoot it. Another error is not explaining why the aliens explode when they’re exposed and fired upon. It seemed like anything placed into their bubbles would cause them harm, even a chunk of metal instead of bullets. You’ll know the scene when you see it. It didn’t make a lot of sense. It kind of did but wasn’t explained properly along with the visual of how the aliens are situated inside of their bubbles. You’ll see what I mean. You can figure it out but some things need exposition within the movie. It shouldn’t be something for a viewer to figure out on their own because most won’t be able to.
You’ll probably hear a lot of complaints about the acting. It’s not great. It’s tv quality and that’s exactly how this concept should have been presented. It’s a bit like Falling Skies except we’re shown the alien invasion from the beginning instead of the aftermath like the aforementioned tv show. This doesn’t work as a movie mainly because of the acting and the unrealistic reactions to certain situations. If the acting was as well-directed as some of the plot points were written, this movie would be a winner. The script isn’t even and that’s what really hurts this from being great. You can’t make people in a movie like this do what viewers expect them to do when you have a couple of characters that are smart enough to know how to survive given the circumstances. That intelligence may drive the plot but not the characterizations and that’s where this fails. They don’t match up. Dumb characters can’t make smart decisions. They should have given us likeable characters. A lot of the ones here aren’t and you’re happy to see them literally disappear.
Wasting time on useless, unlikeable characters isn’t good when they effectively could have used less characters to create a more tense environment on that journey to salvation and the fewer characters used could have been better developed to fit into what’s going on. Stereotypical club girls in this situation, you already know what good they were to the progression of the movie. And if you’re gonna create a hero, those qualities need to be shown in the beginning so that when a certain character becomes a hero, we can believe it. What I’m saying is, this movie is cliché in too many places. It could have been so much more if it had a more serious tone and better character development. I would have given it 5 out of 10 stars but the smart factor earned it another point. Don’t spend money on this. Watch it on Blu-ray when you have nothing better to do. 3D effects? They were only good and truly effective when the aliens exploded (I actually moved my head to dodge a fragment) so if you’re gonna pay to see it in theaters anyway, save your money and stick with 2D. Nothing happens during or after the credits.
