User Reviews

In 2004 in Moscow, the wealthy entrepreneur Kuptsov (Viktor Verzhbitskiy) is drilling the underground of the city trying to reach a huge vein of diamonds that may destroy the city. However the power is insufficient and he needs the Nano-catalyst that had been developed years ago but its location is unknown. Meanwhile the low middle-class teenager Dima (Grigoriy Dobrygin) dreams on having a car and dating his gorgeous college mate Nastya (Ekaterina Vilkova). His wealthy friend Maks (Ivan Zhidkov) that has a Mercedes Benz is flirting with Nastya and Dima feels incapable to dispute her love due to his financial condition. On his birthday, Dima receives an old Volga as a gift of his parents but he is ashamed of the car. One day, Dima discovers that the Volga is capable to fly but he is unable to control the car. When his father is stabbed by a punk on the streets, Dima does not know who the victim is and does not help him. His father dies and Dima decides to bring the responsibility to help the Muscovites. But the greedy Kuptsov wants the Nano-catalyst at any price.

"Chernaya Molniya" a.k.a. "Black Lighting" is a delightful adventure that recalls "Transformers". The hero is born in a similar situation of "Spider Man", when he realizes after the death of his father for lack of his sympathy that great powers bring great responsibilities and he ends the story with his beloved girl. The beauty of Ekaterina Vilkova is awesome; the special effects are excellent; and this film is a great entertainment. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Trovão Negro" ("Black Thunder")

So I was waiting for this movie to appear for a long time. I saw the trailer and I had greater expectations. But apart from special effects and a touch of nostalgia for the Soviet times I think this movie is seriously flowed. Some spoilers here : The hero survived some transformations that did not seem very logical: Quick switch from being a normal person to someone obsessed with making money just to show off in front of a girl? A very fast transformation from someone who caused his fathers death with total luck of interest in people to being a super hero? Then some laws of the physics were crashed like stopping a van through hitting it from behind, being able to fly on a Mercedes in space without freezing, starting a Volga after it has been drowned, etc. Not to mention shameless advertising of apple cell phones who ring under water. At last I think I miss the feeling as a whole in the movie. They tried to tell a story and to touch some sensitive topics but they failed. On the whole its worth watching as it is fun but I think something is missing and the screenplay should have been rewritten with more attention to detail. Still my favorite is when the sign of Mercedes and Volga were opposed when flying to the stratosphere, its quite amusing :)

Let's pretend for a moment that it's 1999. There is no Spiderman. The last Batman movie with Mr Freeze is a recent but quickly fading memory and we have not even heard of Chris Nolan...well outside of Australia at least, and the only thing we know of the transformers is that it's a plastic robot toy from the 80s that used to...hang on, that's right, turn into a truck or something... I'd also be 11 years younger and perhaps a little less cynical and forgiving of schmaltzy, clichéd stuff. So, in this imaginary world where we have a time traveling De Lorean or equivalent, I would have walked out of Black Lightning and thought "Man, what a cool movie. Those Russians really are breakthrough...how awesome was that!". "Yes it's a bit back to the future, but who cares...that was FUN!!"...

Except it's not 1999, and I am 11 years older. I've seen Spiderman where he discovers his gee whiz powers, where his gr amps gets killed, with great power comes great responsibility, etc. I've seen transformers where a beat up old car becomes something awesome. And i've heard the brooding music from Nolan's Batman. I've seen Iron Man take his enemy up in the sky until they both froze up and he ran out of fuel and dropped back to earth...should i go on?

So why the heck did they make this movie? Did they just assume that no one in Russia watched all of the above and they could put together a greatest hits compilation of some of the better super hero American fare? Probably. But for those of us who have seen these movies, Black Lightning (the name makes me cringe!) is a Frankenstein cut and paste, in many cases scene by scene steal of far better movies. It's b grade schlock made for an uneducated audience.

Yes, I'm being harsh. I enjoyed the movie for the first 30 or so Min's. It seemed fresh and interesting. Then at about the point where the car first takes off I felt this sense of dread. Oh oh...that bit looks like America's Greatest Hero...and that bit is Transformers...and that bit is Spiderman (why am I watching this again?...never mind...it'll get better)...and that bit is just like (well you get the idea)...And the flying Volga is actually more ridiculous than a flying De Lorean...

I should say some kind things about the film...let's give this a go. The heavy metal Russian soundtrack is pretty cool. The girl in the movie is rather lovely, but her flipping between the boys got old real quick. The special effects are not too bad considering it's a low budget film (although they are cheesy) and the surround mix is typically over the top for a 5.1 modern Russian film.

At the end of the movie I felt disappointed and embarrassed for all concerned with this production. And Bekmambetov really should have known better!

So if all the above disclaimers don't concern you, go ahead and watch it. But, you have been warned...

With great power comes a great responsibility... It was an enjoyable and light movie. Don't expect the movie to make any blockbusters or become a classic but if you nothing else to watch then it's worth a look at. I would rate it as a family movie since the plot is fairly simple and the action is not really violent.

By the way i didn't know humans could withstand pressure in space or even breath in space... oh well and when coming down in the atmosphere things usually burn not freeze... these are small details but details are what make this movie childish.

That said, all in all I can say I enjoyed the movie.

When I finally got around to see this movie, I was expecting something decent, because of it's high budget, and nice trailer, I must say I was disappointed. It was too ridiculous in so many ways. I would like to elaborate on some scenes and the acting. The good: Special effects. Nice graphics, It's Bekmabetov third movie (night watch, wanted) with cars making acrobatic skills. It became his trade mark. The mediocre: General Story. If we compare spider man and this one the only difference will be instead of spider bite, it's Old secret soviet technology. The mediocre: Acting. There are few different schools of acting. Russian definitely differs from the one in Hollywood. I think it'll look quite not real for people used to Hollywood movies and it was too weak. The bad: various scenes in the story. Truly, in few parts I actually felt my intelligence was in serious danger. Flying into space and not burning up, nor obvious visible lack of air. Immediate control of flying cars on level which can possibly be achieved by advanced computer in a distant future. Sheep like behavior of people during ENTIRE movie (that is just the bad acting). The hero had a lot of time to climb out of car, climb into the car, destroy walls and all without a scratch. Finally, flying with device of power much greater than nuclear, and nothing - this one made me laugh for some reason. I can go on for a long time... In any case, this was very ridiculous, but I've seen worse. Watch it just for special effects. They are nice.

Mad Russian/mafiosa/college professor is convinced there is a vein of diamonds under Moscow, but in order to reach it he must risk destroying the city. Unfortunately he needs some of the nano power that his scientists had been trying to harness. Somehow the technology was attached to a car which is given to a young college kid by his dad. In true fashion the kid doesn't completely appreciate his dad until the bad guys kill him (ala Uncle Ben) and he turns to crime fighting using his flying car to fight bad guys.

Odd ball re-imagining of Spiderman but with a super car instead of super powers. It's not bad, far from it, it's just that it just misses being great- the main problem being that it's lift so much of the plots major elements from Spiderman and other superheroes.

I liked it a great deal, but at the same time I really wish it was just a tad more original.

I would have liked to title my review "A direct point-for-point plot copy of Spider-Man 2002"

I've seen Spider-Man many times and I know the story inside and out. It did not take long to see that the movie "borrowed heavily" on the plot points. I found it shameless to the extent that they didn't even bother to add original arcs, but rather forced the plot development exactly the same. Sometimes keeping the main plot drivers seem awkward with the other changes and don't fit quite right.

That does not mean you can't have fun with this film. Finding all the similarities and to see what substitutions were made and guessing what the next one would be, can be entertaining.