The Darkest Hour

Five young tourists are thrust into a nightmare when aliens attack Moscow in The Darkest Hour, a hum-drum invasion flick from director Chris Gorak. While the otherworldly invaders are a bit different—they strike through electricity—the story feels overly familiar. The actors, including Emile Hirsch and Olivia Thirlby, seem totally disinterested. Hirsch is particularly lethargic; if he’d been replaced halfway through the film with Hayden Christensen, nobody would have noticed. The filmmakers try to make up for a lack of charisma by upping the action in the last 15 minutes, and while the action does get a weensy bit tense, it’s not enough to make up for the hour and a half that preceded it.