The Darkest Hour - Why all the hate? It's not that bad! 

There are some films (ala 'Snakes on a Place, Cowboys and Aliens' etc) where you really should ask yourself whether you think you will enjoy them based on the title alone. Granted, 'The Darkest Hour's' title isn't as big a give away to the film's content, but, judging by the amount of negativity surrounding the movie, I would strongly advice anyone contemplating watching it to locate its trailer on the internet before viewing.

Basically, it's an `alien invasion' movie (albeit set in Russia, but don't worry, everyone kindly speaks perfect English so there's hardly any need to read many subtitles). Some nasty ol' monsters descend from the sky and start murdering the population. Our plucky American heroes must therefore run and fight back to survive.  There are five 'main' characters to begin with and you won't remember any of their names by the time the credits roll - i.e. they're that forgettable.

Perhaps the closest film already out there like this is 'Skyline' (also critically mauled), however I found its plot similar to '28 Days Later' (although with aliens instead of the `infected').  The atmosphere is reasonably well done - in other words it creates a decent enough 'apocalyptic' feel about the end of humanity. 

This movie is no masterpiece. There's not an awful lot of scope with the script to allow the actors much in the way of anything other than filling their roles, let alone character development. The special effects are low-budget (by today's standards), but acceptable for what's required.  It does feel a bit like you're watching a 'made-for-TV' movies sometimes with the cheap CGI.  The aliens conveniently aren't really seen 'properly' for the most part, which does allow the film-makers to save on money here and there.

If you enjoy effectively a B-movie with a bit of chase and action thrown in, give it a shot, you might enjoy it (but my initial advice still stands: check out the trailer, if you think it might be for you, then it probably is).

7/10 if I woke up on Groundhog Day and had to watch this again, I could live with that