After Darkness

The reviews of this movie share a common mob mentality I've noticed on this and other sites, where several people are bored or have specific expectations of a movie and others tend to chime in.

Yes, this is not an action drama, and there's a lot of sitting, waiting and somber talk, but it held my full interest until the somewhat ambiguous ending. I'd see it for yourself in a setting without distractions and be your own judge.

This is hardly a masterpiece but it's not terrible either. If you go in expecting this to be filled with riveting drama or action or to simply be like many other films with similar subject matter, you're probably going to be disappointed. This isn't that. There's very little action and even the drama is relatively tame.

The story focuses on this broken family isolated in a mansion. They aren't in the center of what's going on. They aren't even paying attention to the news updates so the audience doesn't get much information. In fact, this almost apocalyptic event seems to mostly exist as a plot device to get this family back together and stress them out. The entire thing is just learning about this family and their history as they fight to survive what seems to be an apocalyptic event.

The science of the movie is well... is there any? We don't actually know much about what's going on, but it's probably not scientifically possible. That being said, it seems the idea of the movie might have been drawn from Lord Byrons poem, Darkness. So perhaps it wasn't meant to be scientifically accurate and instead just show a take on this dream that happened in the poem.

I think if you take the movie for what it's actually meant to be and do, it's not that bad. It's still no masterpiece and it's hard to watch sometimes, mostly because the behavior of the father really bothered me. This family is messed up. But if you like calmer movies with a little bit of an apocalyptic setting that focus more on individuals and families, you might actually enjoy this. But if you need riveting drama and action to keep you interested in something.. you should probably look for something else.

The acting is solid here and that's about the only positive I can come up with for this most depressing and distressing apocalyptic film. Aside from the veteran pros Tim Daly and Kyra Sedgwick, young Natalia Dyer and John Patrick Amedori give excellent portrayals.

The sun is burning itself out and a highly dysfunctional family gathers in the hopes their politically connected father (Daly) can get them safe passage to "the caves" where the elite will go in case of natural catastrophe. The family though, will not only have to contend with the end of the world but with Daly's dictatorial and emotionally abusive self, as well as Sedgwick's mental unbalance.

As I see it, the viewer is just subjected here to a continuous bleak slog as the story plays out, which can be most difficult to watch at times. But then after all this, here comes one of the biggest cop-out endings I've seen in a long time. Do yourself a favor and avoid this mess of a movie.

The sun is going dark for an unknown reason. The Beaty family has gathered at home waiting for rescue that may not come.

This movie has a big idea but the question is what it does with it. It does very little with it. It turns the camera inwards upon this family. It's asking all the small questions. It ignores the one big question. The characters don't deal with it. I also question that the earth is still warm somehow. It should get cold much faster. It should be nuclear winter. Science is not the first concern in this movie with the big sci-fi idea. I'm not even going to question the green grass. At the end of the day, the family drama holds no real drama. Without actual drama, the movie struggles to gain traction.

Like watching paint dry. I like these actors so gave it the benefit of the doubt. Wish I had cleaned out the refrigerator instead.