The Darkest Hour

1 of 5

Not sure Hirsch found what he was looking for here

2 of 5

An unusual angle of Moscow's Red Square

3 of 5

The locals discover how to hinder the aliens

4 of 5

Anthony Minghella's son, Max

5 of 5

Emile gets pretty hands on pretty fast

You'd think that any film starring Milk and Into the Wild's Emile Hirsch would be worth watching. Think again.

Perhaps the Lord of Dogtown star chose to feature in this American-Russian apocalyptic thriller to gain his action wings and that he does.

He plays a software developer who, along with his partner (Minghella, as in son of the late Oscar winning director Anthony) are in Moscow on business when the city is invaded by mineral-seeking aliens. Together with the two female foreigners they've hooked up with, they'll need all of their wit, intelligence and moves to outsmart the electric competition. Hirsch, Minghella and Thirlby will attract a teen audience and they do what they can with their one dimensional, embryonic characters.

While this is only director Chris Gorak's second feature, he has worked as an Art Director on Minority Report, Fight Club and Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. That combined with his background in architecture results in fantastic shots of the city however his use of a clunky device to portray the passing of time, scene transitions and story archs are disappointing.

Plus there is a lack of imagination in writer Jon Spaihts' script - here's hoping he ups his game for Ridley Scott's Alien hat-tipper Prometheus. Together they bring nothing new to the jam-packed table of sci-fi survival thrillers. There's plenty of wham-bam, 3D, big screen loving action, just little to tickle the mind.

Taragh Loughrey-Grant