The Darkest Hour - 2 / 5
A movie that reminded me of Skyline: a low-budget visual effects showcase with not-overly-known stars, a plot that's mediocre at best, and questionable creature design. It's not
that bad, but for Emile Hirsch it's still a far cry from Into the Wild. If he's ever going to have a decent career, he should avoid movies like this...
And will someone tell the screenwriters that it's ok to have
Spoiler:aliens that are electromagnetic waves instead of always being creatures that use electromagnetic waves as cloaking devices. Why does intelligent alien life always have to have living tissue? And while we're at it, tell those screenwriters that it's NOT ok to destroy an alien by simply throwing a piece of its shield into it where you'd otherwise need either a bazooka or at the very least entire clips of bullets...
And wouldn't these types of aliens be VERY sensitive to an EMP pulse? As in: it could potentially wipe them out in seconds?
Also: Max Minghella is already being typecast. Here (as a backstory) he plays a young man that's made a social networking site for travelling youngsters, but gets backstabbed by his Swedish companion. In The Social Network he played... well, well, well...
J. Edgar - 2.5 / 5
In its entirety J. Edgar is a good biopic film. The story is actually quite good, acting performances are great (although DiCaprio is trying a bit
too hard to get an Oscar nod), and even director Clint "The Legend" Eastwood's low-key music is great. Then why am I so harsh in my rating? Because mediocre make-up effects bring the entire film down.
There are several scenes where DiCaprio (as the old J. Edgar) wears convincing make-up, but there are plenty of scenes where it's an obvious near-immovable mask. The same goes for Armie Hammer's make-up. As the old Mr. Tolson, his make-up looks consistently bad. They only did a good job on Naomi Watts' ageing make-up.
Which brings me to the following point: since they basically "skip" the entire '40s and '50s in J. Edgar Hoover's life, wouldn't it have been better to just
use different actors? There's a 30-year age gap between all the scenes in the film, so why not just go with an older actor instead of going for unrealistic make-up? I'm sure Jon Voight could do a convincing J. Edgar even without needing lots of adjustments to make him look like J. Edgar (because he already does, imo)...
