Rented on iTunes a new science fiction/action flick called The Blackout (or The Blackout: Invasion Earth… but that’s not what the movie calls itself). I saw it pop up on the new releases but figured it was just another low budget SyFy-level flick… but I then heard the trailer looked good and that it was a Russian film. I figured it was worth looking at, if only to see what a high budget Russian sci-fi flick looks like.
The movie is set in a nearish future where something has happened to the rest of the world. Only a circular region centered on Moscow and including much of western Russia and parts of Finland, Belarus, and Ukraine has remained untouched. The government and media have no contact with the outside world… so small recon teams are sent into the “quarantine zone” to see if anyone’s left alive. And then animals and heavily-armed zombie-like humans start attacking, and a young soldier gains psychic powers…
It’s basically a pretty pulp sci-fi alien invasion war movie. The film does have a very good production value and decent enough action scenes/special FX. They certainly had a good enough budget or smart prop and set decorators so the movie can be admired on a purely production level. The action isn’t fantastic but its a few levels above competent (and it looks good).
Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of story or character here. The run-time is over two hours which is just too long for the amount of content provided… there’s a lot of scenes of soldiers exploring streets and fighting bad guys, but it seems to amount to a lot of time filler. The flick would have worked a lot better if it was tighter and more focused. Plus it spends a little too much time moralizing… but I guess even if it is a bit preachy, at least it has an idea in its head.
So I can somewhat recommend this to anyone who really digs sci-fi action flicks or who is interested in seeing what Russia puts out as an imitation of big dumb American movies. It’s not a terrible movie… it just feels too long and doesn’t have enough meat on its bones to justify itself. A valiant effort that isn’t as corny or over-the-top as some of the other Russian-made attempts at blockbuster movie-making.
Score: 73