Chyornaya Molniya

First of all, I didn't realize it was Russian. It was dubbed in English so there were no annoying sub-titles. There were a few times when they show a newspaper headline or something on a computer that was in Russian, but it didn't take away from the story. The young man who played Black Lightning looked amazingly like Hayden Christenson from Jumper and the second set of Star Wars movies. He was very good in the role and he could easily play in American movies if he spoke English. His girlfriend was adorable as well. The special effects were not top notch but good enough to make the movie enjoyable. And of course there was the character you loved to hate, the evil rich guy who wanted to use the Black Lightning secrets, well, I can't tell you why. All in all, it was a very enjoyable movie.

Take the Spiderman movie, replace New York with Moscow, the spider suit with a flying GAZ-21 Volga, the green goblin by some billionaire in a flying Mercedes, throw in a bit of Iron Man, Batman as well as Transformers.... and you pretty much get "Chernaya Molniya".

Say what you want, but this movie is just a Russian cocktail, throwing together several of the recent American superhero movies. Only, "Chernaya Molniya" is actually better, but I can't really pin down exactly why. Is it the Russian music, the Russian humor or just the overall exotic nature of a big budget comic style movie taking place in the heart of Moscow, with Russian actors and spoken in Russian?

I don't know or care, really. All I can say is that I enjoyed this movie, in spite of its very cliché plot, its very cliché action scenes and its strangely familiar Hollywood style atmosphere. For those who're in the mood for some light entertainment but are tired of the same old Hollywood crap, this film is something like a subtle breath of fresh air. It has all the familiar plot twists, all the clichés and the same atmosphere of a comic style Hollywood blockbuster movie, but it's served by a Russian cast and a Russian director... that in some way makes it not just bearable but even enjoyable to a guy like me who's tired of the same old Hollywood crap.

But maybe that's just me. Hate it or like it... but this is a movie I'm sure you'll remember.

There is not many Russian sci-fi movies. I have watched "Paragraph 78" the first part, it wasn't good. I can't recall more Russian sci-fi films, although I have watched a lot of Russian films. I was even a little bit surprised when I have seen this film, because I thought Russians don't make such sci-fi films, it's an unusual genre for a Russian film. This one is good enough, but comparing it with American movie "The Island"(of the same genre), which I liked much more, it looks mediocre. So, don't expect something outstanding.

The subject of relationship of women and superheroes isn't really anything new, we saw this many times in other movies, such as "Spiderman"(when someone other is mistaken for a hero or something, or the elaboration of some other sides of being a superhero). And so on.

Black Lightning is your 'typical' story of an ordinary boy, who is given an incredible flying car for his birthday. He then uses the car to become rich in order to win the heart of a girl, but becomes embroiled in a fiendish plot which could end up destroying Moscow!

Black Lightning is fun for kids of all ages, although the very young may not be able to keep up. If young children don't like the subtitles, the dubbing is pretty good, with annoying voices kept to a minimum. The performances are decent, the story is well paced and the action is interspersed at regular intervals throughout. Even if you don't become totally involved with the film, you can enjoy yourself spotting which script ideas have been taken from other films. SM

Saw the trailer a while back and thought it was cool. Watched the film today and it still is cool for a low budget Russian film.

The film lacks originality, look at it as Spiderman with a flying car(Volga to be specific) and a few bits of Iron Man action added towards the end. The story is pretty much Spiderman. But if you can look beyond those points it is enjoyable.

On the upside, all the unknowns did a good job especially the lead actor and the lovely leading lady. The CGI was above average taking into account the low budget of the film.

Overall it was cool to watch and enjoyable to a fair degree, had the story been more original I would've rated it higher.

6.4/10

Definitely not bad.