The Blackout: Invasion Earth (2019) Review
The Blackout: Invasion Earth (2019) Review
When the end comes for civilization, it will not be terrorism or nuclear war that causes it, but ‘The Blackout’. An unexplained phenomenon has struck the Earth. Contact between most towns on Earth has been severed. A small area in Eastern Europe is the only location that still has electricity.
When military forces venture outside, they discover a shocking truth – corpses everywhere. In stores, in cars, on roads, in hospitals and railway stations. Who or what is destroying all life on Earth? And how long can the last outpost of mankind endure? It’s up to a crack squad of troops to investigate, venturing into a no-man’s land to confront the threat, whatever it might be – and exterminate it at all costs!
THE BLACKOUT: INVASION EARTH is a 2019 Russian science fiction action thriller film directed by Egor Baranov (Nathalia Hencker directs the English version) and starring Pyotr Fyodorov. It is available to watch as either subtitled or dubbed and being the plonker I am, I chose to watch the latter. It’s to the film’s credit that I could see past the dire dub work and appreciated this sci-fi action bonanza for the top-notch thrillfest that it is. True the dubbing reduces onscreen performances to something rather lifeless and stilted but fortunately the film’s unrelenting and spectacular action more than compensates for that.
As a somewhat jaded middle-aged film critic I was thrilled to be constantly surprised by the events that unfolded onscreen that culminated in a series of jaw-dropping set-pieces. Why surprised? In the past Russian sci-fi has tended to be more cerebral – Tarkovsky’s SOLARIS and STALKER come to mind – whereas THE BLACKOUT: INVASION EARTH plays more like a Hollywood flick but with balls and, along with the ALIEN-like SPUTNIK, released earlier this year in the UK, it marks a welcome change of direction away from the highbrow. It’s an amalgmation of ideas you would have seen before in the likes of THE MATRIX, STARGATE and even THE RAID but it’s very much has its own flavour and, for my money, is all the better for it.
Watch the official trailer HERE
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