The Blackout

There's something engagingly diverting and eerie about this militaristic Russian combination of Aliens, Pitch Black and Blade Runner. When Earth is plunged into no wi-fi darkness by an unexplained phenomenon, a portion of Eastern Europe is the only place left with electricity. In this "Circle of Life" girdling Moscow, Belarus, Ukraine and Finland, military recruits are dispatched in teams to search for survivors, and make a series of shocking discoveries as they attempt to figure out who - or what - is targeting Earth. Director Egor Baranov brings heft to the laser-sighted combat scenes, although the heartfelt exchanges between Pyotr Fyodorov's soldier and Svetlana Ivanova's journalist lose their impact in translation. A mouthless, Nosferatu-like extra-terrestrial sage (Artyom Tkachenko) adds intrigue, but the film is let down by a huge dump of backstory, plus a predictable, franchise-baiting final coda.