The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour is a visually inventive, fast paced, sometimes entertaining and fun. It's an easy way to kill some time, but the film is so unoriginal and forgettable, that it should have been direct to DVD.

This concept has been done to death, in so many similar ways. For instance, in the films Vanishing On 7th Street, War Of The Worlds, Cloverfield, Independence Day, ECT. With Cloverfield being the best of the bunch so far. The film is just easily lost in those handfuls of films; The Darkest Hour just didn't go anywhere fresh, terrifying or exciting with the premise and fell back on old formula.

The performances were ok, with likable actors in the leads. Their characters are one-dimensional though; they are underdeveloped and cardboard, which made it hard to care about their demise. Emile Hirsch is a good actor, but he is wasted here and deserves a better movie, than this trifle.

The Darkest Hour does have some cool and haunting set pieces. There are some action scenes that will put you on the edge of you seat, especially the bus chase, when the creature locks two characters in and controls the power. Other than those few entertaining elements, the film is way too tame and pretty for its own good. Flair with no edge.

Overall, the corny ending, anti climax, was disappointing and flat. The film had some potential but just went nowhere intriguing or surprising. The Darkest Hour threw nifty CGI in your face, which made most of it at least watch able, but with the rest of the film not pulling through, what's the point? Not recommended, but television viewing if anything.