PLOT: A single father and two women venture from the safety of their homes to face monstrous creatures to save the life of a young boy.
REVIEW: Post-apocalyptic movies seem to have a little more credence to them after the mess we went through in 2020. It’s become much easier to imagine the collapse of society and filmmakers have taken advantage of this to tap into viewers’ fears. Elevation brings the concept of monstrous creatures taking over Earth and gives them an intriguing limitation: they can’t go above 8000 feet. So rather than the broken-down urban landscapes and destruction of standard post-apocalyptic cinema, our setting is decidedly more heavenly mountaintops. But will the humans that have survived the invasion, ever be able to return below the line ever again? Or will the monster eventually get them all?
Elevation picks up three years after the initial invasion and follows Anthony Mackie‘s Will as he has to go into the danger zone in order to save his son’s life. The ticking time bomb of his son’s medication means the stakes could not be higher. Either Will dies on his mission and his son perishes from his illness, or he stays and his son passes anyway. The only way to keep his son alive is to take the massive risk of entering the city of Boulder. Joining him on his trip are fellow survivors, Nina and Katie. Nina is a hardened scientist who is insistent on finding a way to kill the monsters. And Katie is struggling with the idea of this life being the only thing she knows/experiences.
I tend to like Anthony Mackie but admittedly Will is a bit of a dull character. He has devotion for his son but is pretty one-dimensional. The dialogue isn’t doing him any favors, especially with the exposition he has to expound. But Morena Baccarin‘s Nina manages to keep things interesting. There’s a lot of nuance to her character, even if she seems like a walking stereotype at first. Loved seeing Baccarin in a role like this. Maddie Hasson‘s Katie is tragic, with her mostly just trying to find her purpose in this new world. She has to contend with her feelings for Will while still wanting to respect her deceased best friend and Will’s wife. But as you can tell, this isn’t the most entertaining group to hang out with for 90 minutes. It’s mostly just arguing and being mad about their situation.
The biggest issue with Elevation is that its story feels very chopped up and derivative. This almost feels like it could have spread out throughout an entire season. And that’s not to even say that there’s a ton going on within the narrative. But the things that do happen, require so much more room to breathe than what we’re given. Because of this, nearly everything needs to be wrapped up so quickly, that big events come together a little too quickly for my liking. There’s a reason that A Quiet Place ended with an implication of a widespread solution, not the actual application of it.
I have to give the filmmakers credit for filming on location in the Colorado Mountains. This makes for some absolutely stunning visuals. With plenty of beautiful mountain vistas, a working mine, and even a ski lift, anyone who’s been to Boulder will get a kick out of seeing these sights on film. But there’s one moment of action involving the ski lift that is pretty brutal in its execution. Given how good other visual FX turn out, it makes the bad green screen stick out like a sore thumb and it really took me out of it.
The monsters are a bit generic, looking like some bipedal transformers. The digital FX are handled well I like the concept of the monsters being unable to go above a certain elevation, but there’s no payoff to the rule. I was hoping they would subvert it for drama or take away their safe haven but it never happens. And they seem to target humans based on their CO2 output, yet completely ignore animals. Given that living creatures are invisible to the monsters except when exhaling CO2, I’m not sure how the monsters would differentiate animals from humans. Seems like the filmmakers were just trying to make a point regarding humans destroying the planet, but it just makes the monsters’ motivations more convoluted.
One of the more baffling elements of Elevation is its R rating. To say that this could have been PG-13 would be the understatement of the century. I have no idea why they would kneecap their box office so much by making it R, especially when it’s not needed for the story they’re telling. It just results in Baccarin swearing a bunch and could have easily been looped over without much notice. Even when things get violent, the events are relatively bloodless. I really can’t understand why they went this route as it doesn’t add anything to the story. With how much Elevation feels like a PG-13 rollercoaster versus a more hopeless journey, the rating makes less and less sense.
Overall, I ended up being very disappointed by Elevation. It’s clear the filmmakers took A Quiet Place as some sort of inspiration but failed to execute an intriguing story in the same way. This world isn’t set up very well and the stakes feel very wishy-washy. While the story should end up feeling triumphant, its quick desire for a resolution, neatly tied up like a bowtie, just makes it feel pointless. While the actors are all decent, they inhabit characters that don’t really stand out.
ELEVATION IS PLAYING EXCLUSIVELY IN THEATERS ON NOVEMBER 8TH, 2024.