The Darkest Hour



The premise behind Sci-fi flick, The Darkest Hour, had me intrigued. An invasion by invisible aliens and they had one mission, which was barely presented, to take earth’s resources by any means and that meant destroying all living beings when they came across them.

They did a phenomenal job of the look of the film. Placing this in Russia was different, yet nice. But for me, they had a target audience of teens and thus focused the cast on some very young people figuring out very quickly what was going on. That alone, not only reduced the leap of faith factor, but just distracted which could have been some pretty good engaging science fiction telling. I'm not saying anything about the probability or intelligence of young people actually doing this. But in Sci-fi, there is credence to a mature group tackling this and figuring things out. Just the young stars immediately tells me.... you need a HUGE leap of faith to follow this.

The idea of invisible enemy brings some pretty cool perspectives to be explored. But they kept it as something slightly more than mindless action flick.

I did like the surprises in the story. They would be spoilers if I mentioned them and thus ruin the fun. But let’s just say, I do like the direction I’ve seen in movies of late, thinking you know what’s going to happen and something else does.


Happy  Feet Two



Hmmmm, I don’t know what happened with this sequel to the fun original. It’s always a balancing act to present a family movie that appeals to kids and adults alike. The movie seemed to go back and forth trying to appeal fully to one group then the other. It was just odd directing, camera angles and editing, following the antics of all the different characters. Amazing CGI and finally they rendered humans in a very not creepy way. One scene was extremely realistic as far as taking you out of the animation mind.

Happy Feet Two is OK but can only recommend a rent. It is geared more for very young kids

Sunshine



Sunshine is one of those highly underrated sci-fi flicks that just got passed over for whatever reason. If you have not seen it and you like space sci-fi, I think you’re gonna enjoy this. From the visionary director of 28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later, Danny Boyle takes you in a whole other epic direction. Different visual style yet again. I will say that the 3rd act not only amps up the action, but the visuals really just interrupted the pace and increased my frustration, er, uh stress. After watching it for the 3rd time, *I now get what was happening. *Except for the very end. Still don’t know what the last scene meant.

A voyage of handful of people in a spaceship the size of Manhattan headed directly towards the sun to try to re-start the dying stars process naturally brings on a series of obstacles and diversions. Key to an engaging storyline, but it’s Boyles work with the actors and characters that make this a solid film.

Retreat

Essentially a 3 person ensemble play. A psychological thriller. I'm not sure what to take from it. This like the other films we watched this weekend, is NOT a feel good film. It starts off bleak and get's worse. Don't get me wrong. Great acting and story that's not only engaging, but has you guessing. The last minute will hit you from left field. Jaws a dropping.

At first I thought this had similarities to the awful Bug with Ashley Judd, Michael Shannon and Harry Connick Jr. But this is different and keeps you on edge enough to have to stay to the end to see what happens.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbt_qFSiKvk

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close

I'll be honest, I didn't actually sit down to watch this. My wife had it on while I was working in the kitchen. I heard everything and took moments to watch. Thus I can't rate it fairly.

But what I did hear, echoed what I've heard about it. Manipulative with a very sappy story. Lot's of editorial by the child lead actor which to me, sounded like a kid was reading a kids book to kids. Ugh. I sat down to watch the last 15 and was not impressed at what I heard or saw. Very forgettable and now I'm starting to wonder about Tom Hanks and his decisions for his latest projects.

Maybe a rent if you got nothing better going on.