Film Review: Elevation (2024)

Directed By George Nolfi
Genre: Sci-Fi - Action
Format: Streaming

Elevation has an excellent elevator pitch: the world is taken over by giant creatures who cannot survive above 8,000 feet, forcing the few survivors of their initial invasion to live secluded, remote lives in the mountains. It’s here we meet our main characters, Will (Anthony Mackie) and Nina (Morena Baccarin), living in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. Will’s son has a disease that impacts his lung function, and after three years in seclusion, his medical supplies have run out. Will has to make the difficult decision to venture below the safe line to Boulder, where a hospital has the supplies he needs.

The plot is simple, and it works well. I’m a sucker for a creature feature, and the creatures are big and complex enough to keep us curious about them throughout the movie. The scenery is gorgeous, the action is well paced and even, and the stakes are clear. Mackie gives a decent performance and feels the most comfortable on screen out of the three main actors, but Baccarin begins to defrost by the end of the movie.

I also liked that the older female character, Nina, was allowed to survive, when so often in action or sci-fi flicks they are discarded or sacrificed. This was not the case in Elevation, where the older woman not only survives, but is not written to be a love interest for the man. I enjoyed the complexity of Nina’s character, a woman who is unlikeable, yet interesting – hoping to be the first human to kill one of the creatures. She is formidable, smart, and in some ways ruthless.

It’s a shame then, that this movie with such great potential is wrecked by some of the worst dialogue I’ve seen in recent movie history. It seems like almost every line is used to directly explain the plot (they repeatedly tell us the creatures cannot cross the 8,000 foot line – even though this is made abundantly clear in the first scene), or give us backstory (multiple exchanges elaborating on the situation in which Will’s wife was killed, unnecessary specifics on how humanity was destroyed by the creatures, etc.). This exposition-heavy dialogue makes the characters feel stiff and fails to fully develop them. They’ve all been living in close quarters for three years, yet it feels like this is their very first day interacting.

Still... I can’t help but feel this movie has the seeds of something. The world is clear and well-developed enough that I found myself wanting to sink into it. Fans of creature features or post-apocalyptic movies will like the set up and the flow of action. The movie is fun and interesting if you ignore the dialogue issues. It also leaves us on a cliffhanger, with a new threat quite literally on the horizon.

Will I watch the sequel? Yes. But only with hope that the next script trusts audiences to follow the plot themselves, and dialogue is used to deepen the character development instead of spell things out for us. 2.5/5.

Purchase Link: Available on Max

Review By:

Chelsea Catherine
chelseacatherinewriter.com