L'empire des ombres

While parts of the movie peaked my interest, overall, it was very disappointing. A vague plot, poor script, weak effects and actors trying their best to make it work. Too bad they failed. A movie with this premise has great potential, it can lead the viewer down a path and let the audience intellectually fill in the blanks. In order for that to occur, the movie itself must provide the plot points, the material that that allows, and draws the viewer to want to connect the dots and create, so to speak, their own movie within a movie. I just gave up, and so, apparently, did the filmmakers. I won't gave away anything, because there really isn't anything to tell.

'VANISHING ON 7TH STREET': Two and a Half Stars (Out of Five)

Brad Anderson directs this apocalyptic horror film about an unknown darkness falling on mankind and devouring everything in it's path. Hayden Christensen, Thandie Newton, John Lequizamo and newcomer Jacob Latimore star as a small group of survivors who band together. The film was written by Anthony Jaswinski (who's written a few other low rent horror films no one's heard of, mainly of the made for TV variety). Anderson has shown some skill in past projects (he directed the impressive 2004 thriller 'THE MACHINIST', featuring a 110 pound Christian Bale) but here he sinks to pure mediocrity directing a pretty forgettable routine thriller.

One random day there's a severe power outage and most of the world's population vanishes into thin air, leaving nothing behind but their clothes. The remaining survivors are quickly gobbled up by the ever growing darkness as well and the only way to escape it is to stay in the light, which becomes more and more scarce as electricity continues to fail and the days grow shorter and shorter. The film focuses on four surviving strangers who find each other in a bar on 7th Street in Detroit Michigan. Christensen stars as a TV anchorman named Luke, Leguizamo co-stars as a movie theater projectionist named Paul, Newton also co-stars as a mother desperately looking for her lost child and Latimore plays a young boy first camped out in the bar hopelessly waiting for his mom to return.

The film is interesting at first but none of it's puzzling questions are really answered. It's suspenseful and effectively eerie at times but nothing builds to a very satisfying conclusion. The point of the movie is never clearly known. Some will enjoy it's open-endedness but others will be frustrated by what some will call it's creative laziness. The performances are all adequate at best, the screenplay somewhat boring and the directing ho-hum. Not a complete waste of time for horror and suspense thriller fans but ultimately forgettable.

Watch our review show 'MOVIE TALK' at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aotBOLCP-Yg

OK - let me start by saying this isn't a BAD film. Its just that there's no pay-off at the end. You're left with a "So what WAS going on?" feeling. All successful stories have a start, a middle and an end. Vanishing on 7th Street is missing the 'end'.

The acting, direction and camera work all make the grade - but thats all. Its almost as if they've JUST managed to do enough to warrant getting paid. While there are a few nice touches during the film, there isn't anything here that you wont have seen before. Although I was surprised by one event close to the end which I wont ruin by revealing here.

Unless you have some reason to watch this film I wouldn't waste the time. There are 100s of 'fair/mediocre' films out there so choose one that at least has a proper 'end'.

5/10

Why nut burn stuff for light. They had a entire city full of wooden objects to burn for light. Even if this was set in a rural area, they could've collected wood to burn at night.

This movie is really mysterious and starts with great promise - people disappearing in the darkness - well, this is frightening. It is not too logical - some things do happen but somehow contradicts the story logic (ie. small girl with solar powered flashlight somehow survives even if there is mentioned that the Sun rises only for a few hours, hardly to recharge the flashlight).

All right. I'm willing to accept even less logical movies like Japanese horror movies which often do not respect time or actual causality. However these movies usually do try to explain what his happening and why it is happening (with several theories how to resolve the situation, often wrong).

But there is hardly any explanation here, only "signs" which may be interpreted in many ways. The ending is sudden, hardly explains anything and left me unsatisfied. Is the happening local or global? Is it transitory or final? Is it demonic or end of the world caused by God? The movie focuses on (not too successful) attempts to survive but provides way too few answers. The feeling is depressing, which is good, but I really lack the climax. The ending was somehow abrupt and unsatisfactory. I like it, but it is only "good", not "great".