SpuffyWeb
Sadly Over-hyped
Kaelan Mccaffrey
Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.
Gary
The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.
ajrg-17-381639
Yes as an American film it would have been derivative. But listen to the special features. The director explains that at this time Russians don't know what is right and wrong and need a superhero movie. This is a very profound statement. Russia is no longer the place where the common man in extolled. So what now? Putin is strong but a thug, a handful of people are billionaires while the average person earns less than 800 dollars a year. This movie is an answer. You still need to be a good and caring person. This is still the answer, not riches or exploitation. Short of that it has tons of Russianisms that make it funny and interesting from the traffic of Moscow to the drunks. So what can you say? Yes I loved the serious film "How last summer ended" better with the same star. But you know I bought this film.
TheLittleSongbird
Black Lightning was a long way from perfect. The story is very derivative and does get rather predictable, while the ending is a little rushed and over-complicated(perhaps too much going on in the script and the action) and a lot of the special effects are rather hokey and more at home in the late 80s-early 90s. The script, while having some great ironic humour, can feel empty and awkward-sounding at times too. Black Lightning is slickly shot though, with a convincing setting. The Russian heavy-metal soundtrack pulsates through the film with great energy and is quite catchy as well, and the pacing is fine. The action is fun and exciting to watch if occasionally a little cheesy, and the ironic humour in the script is funny and endearing. The characters are derivative and clichéd like the story but still quite engaging, the hero and his love interest are likable and the villain(though his motivation does come across as rather silly) does give an aura of creepiness. The acting is good, especially from Grigory Dobrygin and Viktor Verzhbitsky, though Ekaterina Vilkova is visually gorgeous and at least adequate. All in all, derivative with some hokey effects and a rushed solution, but fun, slick and well played. Partially recommended but try not to over-think too much. 6/10 Bethany Cox
johnslegers
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.
thisissubtitledmovies
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
