The wide swing in positive and negative reviews for At First Light would suggest that the movie is not for everyone. It does not deserve to be savaged by reviewers who expected from it something it was not intended to provide. It is not by any means ordinary low-budget sci-fi fare; the production values and effects are good, and the performances are commendable. It is, in the tradition of 2001 and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, more poetic than expository, and perhaps if it had had the budget of those movies it would be better received. Criticism that it is not sufficiently self-explanatory is misplaced, since any attempt to explain things that are supposed to be incomprehensible would have diminished the movie.
At the same time it is not perfect: its pacing is too deliberate for modern audiences, and its premise is far from original. But those who are not in a great hurry and who enjoy science fiction will probably come away satisfied with the viewing experience. The movie should have an IMDB rating above 7; 8 may be a little high in the grand scheme of things, but one must do what one can do to nudge it towards where it belongs.
At the same time it is not perfect: its pacing is too deliberate for modern audiences, and its premise is far from original. But those who are not in a great hurry and who enjoy science fiction will probably come away satisfied with the viewing experience. The movie should have an IMDB rating above 7; 8 may be a little high in the grand scheme of things, but one must do what one can do to nudge it towards where it belongs.