Otherwise, it is hard to recommend without an asterisk or two. If you have plenty of time and patience, then this film has plenty to offer.
However, the story is bloated, the pacing turns into a plod during its long middle act, and the dub performances are on the weak side. That is not to mention the way it stretches its budget to match bigger blockbusters thanks to some good direction and solid use of CGI. It has a unique premise, and some different twists and turns along the way. Ultimately, The Blackout: Invasion Earth is certainly a different take on apocalyptic Sci-Fi. The film just asks for plenty of patience from its audience.
Still, the action scenes are quite good, especially as things gear up for the big finale and its last twist in the tail. It might have benefited from having a few minutes shaved off its runtime to focus more on its key plot points.
If anything, it feels more like a Russian take on 2016’s The 5 th Wave– a comparison not helped when a ghostly figure refers to the blackout as one of a series of waves.Īs a result, the film gets off to a solid start, but sags around the middle as exposition is dumped and soldiers plod on from one empty residential area to another. There will be a glimpse of an additional detail- a claw here or a fang there- but it is enough to give the viewer the hint that this is more than a typical alien invasion. Here, they are usually cloaked in the darkness like some flitting shadow. In other films, the beasts in the dark would still be hyper-detailed, CGI things. The direction also helps, as it makes the most of its theme. Considering the film’s budget was approximately $5 million, it does a great job standing shoulder-to-shoulder to more typical Hollywood fare that cost much more. – but otherwise it manages to blend in naturally enough with the scenery and the use of physical locations and props, etc. Some of it is noticeably CGI – notably the flying vehicles, cityscapes, etc. The visual effects, while not up to Blade Runner’s standards, are still solid enough. That said, it does stand strong in other areas. Ultimately, though, this is a win for subs over dubs. One can do worse, as it still stands above telenovela dubs or classic Godzilla films. The acting is uneven, with some performances sounding somewhat fine and others sounding forced and awkward. However, if that reference did not remind viewers of old-school anime, the film’s English dub would. The latter is an obscure stretch, as there are plenty of other global catastrophe stories out there. The worldwide cataclysm even echoes a similar one in the 1990 anime A Wind Named Amnesia, only with light instead of memories. Though it mixes it up with its recon unit somewhat resembling the platoon in 1986’s Aliens, and the things lurking in the dark recall 2001’s Pitch Black. Its big techno-metropolis scenes with flying cars, the moody Vangelis-esque soundtrack, and even some of its scene’s color-coded cinematography really go for Runner’s vibe. Is the film worth picking up in the first place? Well, 1982’s Blade Runner and its 2017 sequel Blade Runner 2049 are obvious inspirations. The film is in Russian, but an English dub and subtitles are available on the physical releases. However, it will be released on DVD, Blu-ray, VOD, and Digital platforms starting June 2, 2020, via Shout Factory. Directed by Egor Baranov ( Sarancha 2014, S’parta 2018) and Nathalia Hencker ( Uncharted 3: Drake’s Deception 2011, Por Sofia 2016) from a script by Ilya Kulikov ( Moimoi Glazami series, Chernobyl 2: Exclusion Zones series), the film cropped up at Cinequest in March 2019.