We’re not sure what’s in the water, but 2011 seems to be the year aliens hit our multiplexes en masse. “Battle: Los Angeles,” “Attack The Block,” “Super 8,” “Cowboys & Aliens” and hell, even “Transformers: The Dark Of The Moon” if you want get playful about it — it seems that not a month can go by without a movie detailing visitors from beyond our world. And while big part of the discussion this year surrounded whether or not it was smart to show audiences just what the creatures looked like in this tentpole flicks or saving the surprise for when they hit theater, “The Darkest Hour” solves that problem right out of the gate. These aliens are invisible.
Starring Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella, Rachel Taylor, Joel Kinnaman and Greg Kinnear the simple concept tells the story of a group of young Americans traveling in Moscow who survive an alien invasion that has targeted major cities worldwide and fight for their survival. It seems that not only have they come for our vast energy supply, they are invisible and will literally disintegrate anybody who gets in their way. Directed by Chris Gorak and produced by Timur Bekmambetov some of latter’s tired tricks are in evidence (that bullet time thing from “Wanted” for example) but for the most part, the cast really elevates the proceedings but most excitingly of all — and as Kinnaman noted at Comic-Con — this is a film that serves up some of its biggest scares during the daylight hours which is nice change of pace for the genre.
So yeah, first impressions on this are good. “The Darkest Hour” opens on December 23rd. Watch below courtesy of ComingSoon or in HD at Apple.
