In 2011, the project was launched by director Chris Gorak with the support of the notorious producer Timur Bekmambetov, telling about the extraordinary adventures of Americans in Russia and showing Moscow, Red Square, nightclubs, the metro, the nuclear submarine in the Moscow River and Gosha Kutsenko on horseback. In the film "Phantom" (2011), the actors gave everything one hundred percent.
Unfulfilled hopes
The Darkest Hour, which received the name “Phantom” in the domestic variation, was positioned as a rather ambitious project before its premiere and was expected with impatience. It seemed that he would once again confirm the statement according to which "a movie in which the mass extermination of humanity will be demonstrated cannot be bad by definition." In addition, the main location of the picture was the capital of the Russian Federation, which gave hope that compatriots would have something to look at. These factors were reinforced by the participation of T. Bekmambetov (“ours in Hollywood”), who was not supposed to let Mother Russia fall into the mud. As a result, neither the caste actors nor the factors mentioned above saved the Phantom movie (2011). The picture became an unpleasant exception to the rule, being a very pathos story containing a significant share of outright delirium and a mass of inconsistencies in the narrative. IMDb feed rating: 4.90, reviews are mostly negative.
Description of plot plot
The story began not at all badly. A pair of young American programmers, Sean (Emil Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella), who have written a promising application that allows them to find friends around the world, arrive in Belokamennaya to discuss the possibility of financing their invention. But their business partner (Yoel Chinnaman) refuses to cooperate. The guys go to one of the capital's clubs to muffle disappointment with a fair amount of alcohol. There they meet compatriots Ann (Rachel Taylor) and Natalie (Olivia Thirlby). In the Phantom movie, meanwhile, night falls, and at the darkest hour the planet is treacherously attacked by aliens. Aliens are phantom luminous balls, devouring electricity and incinerating the population. The main characters manage to hide in the basement of the institution. And when, after five days, they risk coming to the surface, they see that a real apocalypse has occurred in the world.
The undoubted advantage of the creators of the tape is the avoidance of popular interpretation of Russian reality. In the film “Phantom” (2011), the actors do not distort our native language, do not participate in chants around the fire under the balalaika and feasts with heavy drinking of vodka.
Mastery of Performers
The game of the actors of the film “Phantom” (2011) was criticized mercilessly by reviewers. Some claimed that there was none at all. Either the experience of the performers, or the temperamentally prescribed characters, but the characters turned out to be emphatically emotional, and their typical behavior for disaster tapes looked unconvincing and boring. The characters of the characters are fatally inexpressive. And this deplorable feature applies to everyone, from the core of the entire ensemble of Emil Hirsch to the occasionally appearing Arthur Smolyaninov. However, if it were not for the presence in the Phantom of Emil Hirsch, one would think that you were in the view of an independent picture. Surely the actor agreed to take part in the project because of his acquaintance with the director during the production of “Kings of Dogtown”.
Two groups of characters
In general, all the heroes of the tape can be divided into two clearly distinguished groups. Those who play the role of the Americans, yesterday were tourists who arrived to rest, and now act as hypostases of real fighters for survival, ready to lay their heads in a battle with spherical aliens. And other actors of the film “Phantom” (2011), playing compatriots in Russia, are incredibly adapted inhabitants, capable of transforming a dwelling into an impregnable fortress and inventing active weapons to destroy aliens in three days.
Hero Kutsenko with the slogan “We have nowhere to retreat. Moscow is behind us. ”It is better to leave no comment. Gosh, on a real horse in armor, should embody the patriotism of the inhabitants of the Russian Federation, but the form is hypertrophied to pathos. Although the Russians in the movies are shown smarter than foreign guests of the capital. For example, if we compare Vika (Veronika Vernadskaya) and the same Natalie, then the first turned out to be resourceful and quick-witted, and the second - especially hysterical. Russian inventor Sergey (Dato Bakhtadze) is a standard of a true enthusiastic scientist, although somewhat extravagant.