Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 12% (Critics) / 25% (Audience)
Directed By: Chris Gorak
Written By: Jon Spaihts
Starring: Emile Hirsch, Olivia Thirlby, Max Minghella and Rachael Taylor
Studio: Summit Entertainment

Synopsis:The Darkest Hour is the story of five young people who find themselves stranded in Moscow, fighting to survive in the wake of a devastating alien attack. The 3D thriller highlights the classic beauty of Moscow alongside mind-blowing special effects. (Source)

The Good:
The overall premise is an interesting one with a bunch of ethereal looking aliens invading Earth to steal the planet’s mineral resources. And the way the aliens killed was cool…they turned their victims to dust in a vamps from BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER kind of way.

The Bad:
As much as I liked the premise the execution was pitiful. The pacing of the movie was awful, none of the actors were impressive, the characters were all a bunch of annoying pains in the ass who behaved in moronic and nonsensical ways at every turn. I understand a lot of leeway has to be given in movies like this where characters behave stupidly to further the plot but these characters were just ridiculous in their stupidity.

The Ugly
I don’t know if the idea to make the alien invaders invisible 90% of the time was a decision made in the writing room or just a sacrifice that had to be made because of a small budget but either way it was a bad decision and added nothing to the film.
And what the hell has happened to Emile Hirsch’s career? He was once tapped as the next Tom Cruise but this movie is enough to torpedo even the strongest actor.

Final Verdict: A forgettable movie based on a decent idea that never measures up. The acting is bad, the script is bad, the direction is bad…hell even the effects are more bad than good when you get right down to it. A waste of two hours of my life and however many millions was spent to create it.

Grade: D-