This sci-fi thriller with an apocalyptic edge to it was an unusual choice for me. I am not one to watch them because often I find them highly far fetched and the endings always unsatisfying. However, I thoroughly enjoyed this movie as it was a on American-Russian production, based in Moscow where five main people were captured when aliens began to invade the earth via our power supply, hence the ‘Darkest Hour’ title.
I specifically enjoyed the use of the characters, who were just normal people at the start of the film with normal jobs and not out to seek what was actually happening it was through other people and through trying to survive that they began to understand what was happening. I also enjoyed the way the Russian language was actually spoken in Russian and had subtitles for the English audience because it allowed it to be juxtaposed with the English and kept the audience more interested because they were Russian, and actually spoke Russian instead of in English all the time.
I would go as far to say this is possibly one of my favourite apocalyptic films. It held my interest as a rather ignorant viewer to this genre and I found the ending interesting, because it never showed the result or why the aliens invaded earth but it had a ‘happy ending’ where they escaped Moscow into a submarine to go back to America. But it doesn’t show whether they got home, I think that’s for the audience to hope to have happened.
Jemma North's AS Blog 