Young American entrepreneurs Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella) come to Moscow hoping to sell their new social networking software, only to find upon arrival their idea has been ripped off by the potential buyers. Downtrodden, they meet two attractive tourists Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachael Taylor), but just as they are getting familiar the lights in the club they are in go out. Walking outside they see what appear to be ‘falling stars’, but wonder turns to fear as these stars begin to disintegrate everyone they touch. In becomes clear that this is an alien invasion, from beings able to manipulate electricity, and the four must hide from these electric terrors to survive.
Plot and character development seem to be taken care of within the first twenty minutes, leaving your typical disaster movie scenario with our small group of survivors trying to find their way to safety. An alien disaster movie is fine, but one without aliens you can see? Not so much… The shaky script, quickly thrown together characters and non-events like our heroes running from, well, nothing on the abandoned Moscow streets leave you baffled and a little annoyed. We spend a long time watching light bulbs go on and off, but when the immensely underwhelming alien reveal comes it’s clear we’ve seen this foursome run around an empty city with little to no pay off.
Despite being given slight characters to work with and a rough script, the actors make the best of a bad situation. None of them are particularly hateful, but all have their roles- Minghella the level- headed leader, Hirsch the wise-cracking ‘Han Solo’ figure, Thirlby the strong survivor, and Taylor just seems to scream and panic a lot. Every Russian character is a crude stereotype, particularly the shaven headed militia that feature towards the end of the film.
While you might not tear your eyes out at it, ‘The Darkest Hour’ gives you very little for your money. Flat characters, invisible aliens, disorientating 3D, not even any gore to keep the horror fans happy. A great advert for the beauty of Russia’s capital city, perhaps, but not a movie worth watching.
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