The Darkest Hour' Trailer Puts New Spin On Alien Invasion

8/15/2011 1:47 PM ET

(RTTNews) - "The Darkest Hour," December 25th:

For families looking to get away from the usual inspirational family fodder this Christmas, PG-13 "The Darkest Hour" might just be the perfect fit. "The Darkest Hour" looks to take audiences to the now familiar place of a post-apocalyptic Earth, where a group of young Americans try to survive as aliens look to drain the planet of all its energy.
The trailer seems to borrow a little from Steven Spielberg's "War of the Worlds" remake, as humans don't seem to have much of a chance against superior beings with weaponry that can zap anything into pieces. Emile Hirsch ("Into the Wild"), Max Minghella ("The Social Network"), Olivia Thirlby ("Juno") and Rachael Taylor ("Transformers") star in what looks to be another movie packed with horror and special effects, which is what you might expect from movies based on alien invasions.
After a couple unique spins on the alien invasion movie, such as "District 9" and "Monsters," we'll see if "The Darkest Hour" can do more than recycle bits and pieces from a familiar genre.
The trailer for "The Darkest Hour l" can be viewed at the movie's official site. Box office outlook:
The biggest problem "The Darkest Hour" has is that it's going up against a plethora of highly touted PG-13 films, which will make it difficult to find a wide audience.
"Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows," "Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol," "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" and "War Horse" all come out around the same time and have the clear inside edge in terms of box office appeal.
Still, alien invasion movies keep getting made for a reason, so a quietly successful box office run isn't out of the realm of possibility for the Summit Entertainment release.