In The Darkest Hour we find a group of young people who are fighting for their lives against an unknown and unseen alien force. The movie opens with best friends and business partners Sean played by Emile Hirsch and Ben played by Max Minghella on board a flight heading for Moscow. The budding entrepreneurs are heading to Russia’s capital to clinch a deal for a travel blog service devised by Ben. During the flight the aircraft experiences an electrical short which unnerves the passengers but they land safely in Moscow and all seems well. Ben and Sean arrive at the meeting with a group of Russian investors confident that they are going to become very rich and successful as they lobby their concept. However they soon discover that their idea has been stolen by a Swedish associate named Skylar (here played by Joel Kinnaman.) who speaks fluent Russian and has frozen the boys out.
The two lads head away to a nightclub to drown their sorrows where they encounter Skylar and they exchange insults. Deflated, the boys meet up with fellow American travellers Anne and Natalie, played by Rachel Taylor (who appeared in Transformers) and Olivia Thirlbly (Juno). As the foursome are partying away the lights go out and they go outside to see a series of lights floating from the sky descending to the ground. It is soon apparent that the experience on the plane was no coincidence and a taste of what lays in store which sees a change of events that completely overwhelms the city residents.
The performances here are decent and the film was very entertaining, better than I had perhaps expected. The effects here are decent I saw it in 3D and it compared well to others released previously. The key element of the movie is the relationships between the lead characters after a while you do care how they get on against seemingly impossible odds. The location of Moscow for the storyline was a great choice; it looks beautiful on the big screen and fits in well with the plot. No real spoiler here, you can see for yourself when you view the trailer click here Overall a very enjoyable movie, plenty of action and the performances are decent. The director Chris Gorak gets the most from his cast, definitely worth a watch.
