4Digital, out now

An unexplained phenomenon has struck the Earth, contact between most towns on Earth has been severed and only a small area in Eastern Europe still has electricity.

As Russian blockbuster sci-fi goes, The Blackout is big budget stuff with visuals that would shame A-list Hollywood productions, but if only they’d spent a bit of time on the script or acting. Aleksey Chadov (Night Watch) is our lead, Oleg, in a plot that liberally steals from so many other sci-fi movies, including fare like Skyline and Battle: Los Angeles, which were already derivative.

There’s a grungy, gung-ho aesthetic and the production values can’t be faulted, but the story just finishes at a point that’s less of a cliffhanger and more of a dead stop. Apparently, a further instalment was due for release earlier this year but was instead shown episodically on Russian TV. And truth be told, after two hours plus of this nonsense you probably won’t care what happens next. Available in subtitled Russian or corny American dub (surely the original script wasn’t that bad?)

Verdict: Technically sound, this uninspired melange of the last 20 years of alien invasion movies has nothing new or interesting to say.  5/10

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