Movies Mayberry Move Club Week 26: The Blackout (2019)

[Cubo de Sangre]

Each week club members will vote on a film to watch. Then the following week we'll discuss it. Anyone is welcome to join in the discussions. If you want to become a member then let me know.

For week #26 the club selected The Blackout (2019).

Premise: Life on Earth is rapidly destroyed except for a small area in Eastern Europe.

Director: Egor Baranov

Starring: Aleksey Chadov

Starring: Pyotr Fyodorov

Starring: Svetlana Ivanova

Trivia:
(via IMDB)​

• This movie was produced as a series of 6 episodes, with a total running time of close to 300 minutes.
  
• On November 7, 2019, a browser game was launched, the main feature of which is integration with Google Maps. In the application window, the user can enter any address (or simply indicate the city) and see how his native streets change in the post-apocalypse in the universe of this film.
  
• During the filming real military equipment was used.
  
• In the film, about 70% of the total timing is done using computer graphics.
  
• Director of the film Egor Baranov claims that his film is more anti-war because he did not try to show the strength of the military in the film, as it was in the films Transformers (2007), Top Gun (1986), and in many other Hollywood films.

Spoiler: Weeks 1-25

1. Rampage (2009)
2. Creep (2014)
3. Victoria (2015)
4. The House of the Devil (2009)
5. The Platform (2019)
6. Cam (2018)
7. Happiness (1998)
8. Audition (1999)
9. Up (2009)
10. A Scanner Darkly (2006)
11. Isle of Dogs (2018)
12. Naked Lunch (1991)
13. Scanners (1981)
14. Cube (1997)
15. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
16. The Trip (2021)
17. Eat Me (2018)
18. Possessor (2020)
19 Bronson (2008)
20. The Raid: Redemption (2011)
21. The Dead Don't Die (2019)
22. River's Edge (1986)
23. Joker (2019)
24. Upgrade (2018)
25. Game Night (2018)

Members: @Cubo de Sangre @Dirt Road Soldier @MusterX @sickc0d3r @Tufts @Zer @NewJerseyNick @websurfer @revoltub

Honorary tags: @JayPettryMMA

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

Nominators note: This movie is in Russian, so at the very least subtitles will be needed. Or a complete voiceover if you don't feel like reading, but I found that it seemed to lose some of the energy with a voiceover track.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Nominators note: This movie is in Russian, so at the very least subtitles will be needed. Or a complete voiceover if you don't feel like reading, but I found that it seemed to lose some of the energy with a voiceover track.

I tried multiple streams and they were all dubbed.

Gonna have to digest this one and share my thoughts tomorrow.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

I guess this would be a Sci-Fi action film. The action wasn't special, but the concept was fairly unique. Not entirely sure I understand it properly.

The alien that was helping mankind was really friend or foe? What was his motivation?

The two aliens got to Earth 200k years ago, to turn man loose, to kill everything else? Why would the aliens want to kill everything and why couldn't they do it themselves?

That they didn't snuff out the alien kids was annoying. Can't imagine how they expect that to go. But hey, this way the film leaves things open-ended in a way that gets you wondering.

Don't have much to say about the acting. It's not a film that call for much, and the dubbing obviously takes a lot away from the performances.

Overall 3 stars. If you're in the mood for a Sci-Fi action film then it's a good choice.

 

[Tufts]

I liked it. Feel similarly to how I felt about Upgrade. Had a lot of potential that the movie itself did not live up to. I liked the concept, but felt there were a lot of holes. A little more thought out, a little better explained, a little better acted would have done a lot to bring it up to 4 stars. With that said, it was unoriginally original, and I enjoyed watching it.

 

[Tufts]

The alien that was helping mankind was really friend or foe? What was his motivation?

At one point it was explained that the concept of God originated from the aliens. Raw (the second alien) appears to have represented the righteous god, and Id the devil. At one point, someone asked Id if Id was the devil. So the concept of religion with binary (good v evil) deities was born from the aliens as a way to control humanity. Raw apparently wanted people to treat each other well, so they introduced the concept of goodness, but then humanity fought in their name. And yes - I am using they/their to refer to the deities, as they have no gender.

It appeared to me to be a struggle of control between two deities. I think Id wanted to destroy the incoming aliens so they could have complete control over the planet.

 

[Tufts]

The two aliens got to Earth 200k years ago, to turn man loose, to kill everything else? Why would the aliens want to kill everything and why couldn't they do it themselves?

I will answer your questions with my own....

So let's see. There was a three-stage plan...
1. Kill the original inhabitants (those who built the pyramids etc)
2. Release a virus (humanity - built in their image only with mouths!) to do exactly what? Fight each other? Destroy animals? Destroy the planet?
3. Release the thing that turned humanity into slaves that would then do what, kill other slaves? Why didn't Id just have their own slaves? Why did Id lose power as they got closer to Raw? Where have Id and Raw been hanging out for the past 200,000 years? And what was all that about how the thing detonated in the wrong place? Id said something about how it was supposed to detonate over the ocean but instead, it detonated over Russsia. Had it detonated over the ocean, would there have been any slaces? Would it have been us in Hawaii????!!!!

 

[Tufts]

That they didn't snuff out the alien kids was annoying. Can't imagine how they expect that to go. But hey, this way the film leaves things open-ended in a way that gets you wondering.

Leads to (hopefully) some discussion. The giving a shit about kids came from left field. This is where some backstory that added credence to compassion towards the young would have added depth to the characters and their choices. So had Doc had bulllets, they would have all died? But since she had to wait for the hammer throw, and once she hesitated, Press showed up, and then Baby-Face hero, then they all suddenly had a conscience and were concerned about killing children? Versus exterminating an alien race? Versus wondering if these kids would turn into mind-controlling gods creating slaves?

 

[Tufts]

Don't have much to say about the acting. It's not a film that call for much, and the dubbing obviously takes a lot away from the performances.

Kissing as a way to work your way though tough decisions. Russian Colin Farrell was apparently just a dick. Baby-face hero had some chops. Doc was cool. Although, fuck any dude who is intimidated by a girl being a doctor.... especially that far into the future. And why was military-director dude all huggy with Press?

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

1. Kill the original inhabitants (those who built the pyramids etc)

Thought alien guy claimed credit for the pyramids.

Where have Id and Raw been hanging out for the past 200,000 years?

 

[Tufts]

I was annoyed at the beginning trying to figure out what was happening where. So there was:
1. a dead-zone (my name) - where everything went black (90% of the planet) where alien-controlled dead people were marching towards where?
2. a quarantine zone that included Finland, Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine (apparently they were still their own country - these filmmakers apparently aren't buying into Moscow's foreign policy goals) and parts of Russia, where Raw was controlling folks to attack where?
3. Moscow - the where being attacked? The only place where humans were still human?

Why couldn't Id control people?

I did like the fight between the two aliens. Enjoyed the fists of fire.

I was annoyed at the fight between Russian Colin Farrell and Baby-Face. There was all this effort to make them seem close (even though Russian Collin Farrell did not know anything about Baby-Face's family situation), and then they fight like that. And then Press shoots him instead of shooting Id. Not that I blame her.... but still.

 

[Tufts]

Thought alien guy claimed credit for the pyramids.

Nope some disappeared race created those and were wiped out by Raw and Id in the first phase.

 

[Tufts]

Why did some lights go out and not others during the bear attack? Why were the bears so badass? Why were there bears?

I also get annoyed by films that are unrealistic in terms of numbers. How do 10 people survive against hundreds. The only way this works is if there is a plot point that backs up the survival. Instead there is shooting and shooting and shooting, yet our protagonists survive.... I prefer a little more realism. If there isn't a reason for 10 to make it against 1000, there don't make the odds so unrealistic.

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

This is why subtitles are also a plus, as I think a few things were lost in translation. I'm going off memory here as I am waiting for a tow truck (damn tires) but here I go.

If memory serves, the 'good' alien explains that humanity was seeded not to wipe anything out, but to prepare the planet for the aliens arrival. In other words, put together the basic building blocks of a functioning planet so when they arrived they wouldnt have to start from scratch and deal with a shitload of potentially hostile and deadly predators.

As for the bomb, I believe it was detonated incorrectly on purpose, to give humanity a fighting chance. The 'bad' alien took control of everyone and everything it could to wipe out any resistance to their species arrival. Hence the massed bear attack, he was trying to preserve human slaves as they would (I assume) need worker drones in large numbers to serve them.

I think there are some other things that I am missing, bit overall you both got the gist of it. If this godawful job will give me the time I will hunt down the straight russian version to see if a subbed version explains things a bit more clearly.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

This is why subtitles are also a plus, as I think a few things were lost in translation. I'm going off memory here as I am waiting for a tow truck (damn tires) but here I go.

If memory serves, the 'good' alien explains that humanity was seeded not to wipe anything out, but to prepare the planet for the aliens arrival. In other words, put together the basic building blocks of a functioning planet so when they arrived they wouldnt have to start from scratch and deal with a shitload of potentially hostile and deadly predators.

As for the bomb, I believe it was detonated incorrectly on purpose, to give humanity a fighting chance. The 'bad' alien took control of everyone and everything it could to wipe out any resistance to their species arrival. Hence the massed bear attack, he was trying to preserve human slaves as they would (I assume) need worker drones in large numbers to serve them.

I think there are some other things that I am missing, bit overall you both got the gist of it. If this godawful job will give me the time I will hunt down the straight russian version to see if a subbed version explains things a bit more clearly.

Thanks.

So you think the "good" alien really did have humanity's interests at heart?

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

Thanks.

So you think the "good" alien really did have humanity's interests at heart?

Yes and no? It wasnt really explained well at all (a major drawback to this film sadly) but I think its heavily implied that humanity would not survive long term if the aliens were allowed to colonize. At the very least if he won, humanity would survive at the very least in a limited manner even with him in control. A 'Better to live under me than to die for them' kinda deal.

I'm going to watch tonight after work and I will post my review then. The sites I used to watch the original subbed version is gone but I'll try to find one. If not I'll watch the dubbed.

 

[Cubo de Sangre]

Yes and no? It wasnt really explained well at all (a major drawback to this film sadly) but I think its heavily implied that humanity would not survive long term if the aliens were allowed to colonize. At the very least if he won, humanity would survive at the very least in a limited manner even with him in control. A 'Better to live under me than to die for them' kinda deal.

Sure. That makes not killing the alien kids look like a ridiculous decision. Which it was, but I guess they either really wanted to make some kind of statement or they were setting up the sequel.

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

Sure. That makes not killing the alien kids look like a ridiculous decision. Which it was, but I guess they either really wanted to make some kind of statement or they were setting up the sequel.

I think that goes back to how the aliens said the humans always turn to violence despite their best efforts so efforts so them not killing the kids was kind of it's kind of humanity once again beating their creators expectations and choosing not to be like them.

 

[Dirt Road Soldier]

So sadly I was not able to find a russian version of the film, so my final review will have to be based on teh dubbed version. Which is kinda sad, since as I stated the original version explained things a bit more clearly that was lost in the translation. But it is what it is.

Acting is REALLY hard to pin down, as the voiceover really takes away from the experience for me. For some reason they never seem to hire good voice actors for this sort of thing, so a lot of it while still good isn't great. A high point for me was the voice of the aliens, as it wasn't your usual straight human sound nor was it some pure animal grunting or growling. The reverberations of their voice gave them, to me at least, a really good alien feel which I think a lot of movies sadly miss the mark on. But all in all, it's decent enough that it doesn't make you want to cringe watching it aside from a few lines here and there where you could tell the voice actors weren't all that into it.

The story is, as Tufts put it, unoriginally original. It's an odd mashup of a few different science fiction invasion tropes, and I think it worked well enough. There are some fairly obvious plot holes however, and more than a few things are explained rather poorly. I think with some fine tuning (or maybe some better translation) it would actually be a really good story that could easily stand out from a lot of its counterparts.

WHat I think I enjoyed most about the movie though was the special effects. They weren't super flashy, they weren't over the top, but they were just plain good. The initial bear attack on the base, the building to building combat throughout the movie, the long distance shots over a devastated city were all REALLY good. They actually did amazing work on the firearm sounds, as instead of the usual FWIP FWIP sounds of bullets flying by you got a variety of sounds which is actually true to real life. You even heard a few whizzing by as they ricocheted off object, which added a nice level of realism to it. You could also see tracer fire not all going in a straight line as full auto assault rifles rarely fire that straight. I also dug the overall look of the alien ship as it arrived, it wasn't some perfect pristine vessel but rather something that looked like it had just spent a few thousand years in deep space.

All in all, I have to give it a 3. If you like science fiction movies it's a solid enough movie to give a chance to. I just really wish the story had been a bit more fleshed out and explained so it didn't leave SO many questions as to what was actually going on. But at the same time, I think part of the fun of the movie is wondering what exactly to think of what all happened and why the characters acted the way they did. It's not a purely straight forward A -> B -> C movie, and I can appreciate that.

But I stand by my theory that Id did in fact have humanities best interest at heart, but he still wasn't exactly a good person. He did seem to be the weaker of the two overall though, as Raw was apparently the one in charge. Which would explain why Id needed help from the humans to take him down, so he could take control of all the slaves and end the conflict. But again, that's one of those 'they could have explained this a bit better' things.

 

[revoltub]

Interesting one. Not sure what to make of it. Some of it is cool and some of it is just plain goofy. Sometimes the film has some decent visuals and other times it looks like a bad B movie whenever cgi is involved.

But I did enjoy the characters and the action. Vagina face alien ninja guy was the standout for me. I watched it dubbed and his voice sounded familar. I also thought the score gave it a more intense and epic feel.

All in all I cant really put my finger on anything that stands out to me to talk about. It's a fun little mindless over the top scifi action movie.

I'll give it 3 stars. I wouldn't go out of my way to recommend it but I wouldn't tell someone not to watch it if they were interested either.