For a film crafted with what had to have been a meager budget, A Light in the Darkness is a promising start to a series that has the potential to be the long lost live action spin-off Lucas’ once promised.

Think of it as an optimistic version of Aronofsky’s The Wrestler (though it doesn’t resonate on quite so many levels).

It’s competently directed, but, in the long run, doesn’t really break any new ground.

This is an example of product placement at its most errant. I don’t know what SeaWorld hoped to accomplish through their involvement with Jaws 3-D; maybe they thought people would flock to Orlando because they wanted to get trapped in an underwater tunnel while a giant shark rammed its fragile glass tubing. Fun!

The movie does give way to certain conventions from time to time, and I wish it would’ve built up the paranoia just a little longer before the “big reveal” occurs (a la Arlington Road), but there’s no denying the intensity on display here.

While there are some smart moments in 11 Minutes Ago, it ultimately feels like a short story that was wedged into a particularly dry issue of Fantasy and Science Fiction magazine as filler.

The humor is subtle, nuanced, and often nothing short of riotous (parodying everything from viral videos to blockbuster action flicks).

The ignorance of the characters combined with the tired schtick of Rogen’s “loser-will-rise-again” routine makes this one a hard pill to swallow.

If you’re the sort of person who prefers heady sci-fi and can deal with a single-setting movie, you will be glad that you devoted 87 minutes of your life to this overlooked example of how a solid story can go a very, very long way.

Even after our mysterious hero provides multiple “explanations” as to why the world is ending, the illogical nature of the whole thing persists.