‘Elevation’ Review: Humanity Is Prey in Brisk Sci-Fi Monster Movie

In this entertaining near-future action thriller, Anthony Mackie and Morena Baccarin face off against “giant murder bugs.” “Elevation,” a film that depicts America’s near future as simultaneously bleak and fraught with suspenseful peril, is the result of a coincidence in release scheduling. However, “Elevation” is not a “Civil War,” but rather a monster movie, featuring mysterious creatures that decimate all humanity living below 8,000 feet.

Playing more like an action film than horror, George Nolfi’s film stars Anthony Mackie as a father whose son’s medical needs force him to venture down into the danger zone. It’s a reasonably taut post-apocalyptic survival tale that makes up for a lack of original ideas with tight pacing and solid craftsmanship. Vertical launches in approximately 1,400 U.S. theaters on Nov. 8, with openings in numerous other territories also scheduled later this year.

The script by John Glenn, Jacob Roman, and Kenny Ryan opens with a stretch of black screen, over which we hear snippets of increasingly panicked news reports. The script suggests a catastrophic chain of natural disasters, ultimately urging people to seek higher ground.

“Three Years Later,” onscreen text notes, the Rocky Mountains look as spectacular as ever. However, a boy who ventures below the safety boundary, hoping to see people beyond his isolated settlement, discovers that the Rocky Mountains are now home to tank-sized, fast-moving, seemingly indestructible “Reapers.” These “Reapers” are essentially non-flying dinoinsects that emit noises reminiscent of the creatures in the “Alien” and “Predator” films. Those “giant murder bugs hatched from the ground,” as one character here later puts it, have already killed off most sentient life at lower altitudes. Recklessly curious 8-year-old Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr.) is fortunate to barely avoid that fate.

However, he finds himself lonely and unhappy in “Lost Gulch Refuge,” an old mountain town with only 200 current residents, none of whom are children, nor Hunter’s mother, who has not returned from an unfortunate sojourn with her cranky neighbor Nina (Morena Baccarin). That’s just one thing his father Will (Mackie) holds against Nina, a misanthropic scientist who’d persuaded his wife to accompany her in hopes of reaching a Boulder laboratory where she might devise a lethal solution to mankind’s pest problem.

Having more or less reverted to frontier times, complete with candlelight as primary illumination after dark, this hamlet is more or less self-sustaining. Despite Hunter’s adventurous nature, he suffers from periodic, serious respiratory issues, and Will has recently depleted the last filter necessary to run the oxygen machine that protects him from these unpredictable attacks. Like it or not, dad must venture down to Boulder in search of a fresh supply. Nina, as the only person who fought the monsters and lived, reluctantly agrees to accompany him, fueled by stubborn belief she can concoct a “magic bullet” that overrides their defenses. Katie (Maddie Hasson), a younger woman who is very fond of Will and dislikes the antagonistic Nina even more than he does, also invites herself along.

What Katie terms “Earth’s new apex predators” soon senses fresh prey once the trio crosses the elevation line. Their first narrow escape is via a ski lift; they’re able to render functional in the nick of time. Will has devised a strategy to reduce exposure by partially traversing ancient mining tunnels, only to discover that the reapers are also present. While not everyone survives to reach the ruined city, there is still hope for our species. Even though the tag sequence leaves the door open for a possible sequel, it suggests that more bad news might be coming from outer space.

Making his fourth directorial feature after contributing to the screenplays of “The Bourne Ultimatum” and “Ocean’s Twelve,” among others, Nolfi maximizes medium-scale resources to give “Elevation” a fairly expansive feel. Shelly Johnson, the cinematographer, fully utilizes the widescreen potential of the magnificent Colorado scenery, while Nathan McGuinness, the visual effects supervisor, brings his nasty four-legged nemeses to life, although Joel Viertel, the editor, mostly keeps them at a distance. The global-crisis premise of the movie, somewhat belied by the modest onscreen spectacle, receives a boost from H. Scott Salinas’ big orchestral score.

Mackie, who also starred in Nolfi’s superior 2020 drama “The Banker,” delivers performances that surpass the formulaic monster movie norm, bringing his usual charisma and conviction. Baccarin pulls off a character who proves more relatable than she initially appears, while Hasson sympathetically fills out a less-defined role.

In the end, “Elevation” doesn’t have the novel or distinctive qualities to be truly memorable, even amongst individual setpieces—iit’s conceptually a mashup of elements from “Pitch Black,” “Jurassic Park,” and the myriad dystopian-future screen visions that grow more numerous every month. However, the film’s polish and excitement manage to elevate its familiarity, providing an entertaining hour and a half.

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