Matthew Percefull
George Nolfi’s newest sci-fi/thriller Elevation landed on HBO’s streaming service Max this past week and went straight to #1 on the trending tab. After a short and innocuous theatrical run in November 2024, the Anthony Mackie vehicle has seemingly reached new heights regarding the film’s relevance. While it holds an exciting premise and some charming performances, the film does not elevate past the tropes and cliches of its genre. Elevation fails to strike new ground and becomes a forgettable and muddy mess by the end.
Elevation’s premise is a simple and familiar one. After a homicidal race of monsters kills a majority of the human race, our heroic group of survivors must do what it takes to persevere. This time the monsters hold a special weakness. They can’t elevate past 8,000 feet. When a sick survivor is running out of medicine, a small group led by Will (Anthony Mackie) attempts to retrieve some at risk of being killed by the “Reapers.” The film consistently reminds you of how far our characters have gone. Instead of adding tension or suspense, the text on the screen just makes everything predictable. Once you know the elevation levels, you know a monster attack is on the horizon. This makes the already present pacing issues even more apparent to the viewer. Elevation moves at a snail’s pace. The few attempts at set pieces are overly telegraphed and end too abruptly.
It’s impossible to review this film without bringing up its obvious influence. Elevation wants to be A Quiet Place. Like the Pulp Fiction rip offs of the late 90’s, since the success of the A Quiet Place franchise, filmmakers and studios have attempted to recreate its success. Bird Box, The Silence, Arcadian, and now Elevation are all similar stories. High concept yet low budget creature features have been a trend for a while now. If you’ve seen just one of these films, you know exactly how Elevation will go. It’s a paint-by-numbers science fiction with no innovation of its own to shake things up. It’s a shame because even the series that popularized this formula has moved away from it with the recent prequel.
Humans having to live in the mountains to avoid these monsters is an intriguing idea. Elevation has very little interest in carving this out. Characters have little to no depth. Worldbuilding doesn’t seem to have been much of a concern at all. The film doesn’t give much information about the state of the world, the monsters or the community our characters find themselves in. This is probably to build intrigue, but the outcome is the opposite. The lack of context makes every bit of action feel empty. When the creatures are attacking our heroes, it’s more confusing than exciting because the creatures’ abilities are poorly explained. We also just don’t know enough about these characters to invest in their well-being. In some scenes these monsters seem impossible to kill and in others it takes no effort to dispatch one. Even the designs of the creatures are uninspired. They have that sludgy CGI look that sci-fi fans have begrudgingly come accustomed to over recent years. Everything from the performances to the monsters themselves is inconsistent.
The set pieces are a huge issue in Elevation. In a film like this you expect a mix of chilling creature horror and some exciting action. Elevation doesn’t really contain either. It’s action sequences are mostly just various shots of our heroes holding a gun and screaming when the CGI slog wasn’t on screen. The horror is a bit more effective but not by much. There’s a specific attempt at a scare that takes place in a cave. On paper, this scene should have been tense and memorable. The way it’s shot and edited takes all urgency away. Often times these moments just seem to be happening to mark off some creature feature checklist.
Anthony Mackie is a solid leading man and has begun to prove that on a bigger stage. He carries a natural charm to him that makes his characters easy to root for. His performance in Elevation doesn’t live up to this reputation. He seems to just be coasting here. He’s not terrible, but there just isn’t much there. It doesn’t help that the character itself is written as generically as possible. Mackie plays Will and all we really know about him is that he has a sick son. This being the driver of the plot is a fine idea but his relationship to his family is never explored outside of a quick scene at the start. There’s no digging deep into his character. In fact, he’s the only character we don’t learn much about at all.
In a heightened story like this, it helps to have a character that can ground you. Elevation never gives you a chance to connect to its characters in a meaningful way. The closest we get is Morena Baccarin’s character Nina. Baccarin easily gives the best performance here but even that doesn’t elevate the poor handling of the character on the page. You’re just confused watching people you barely know survive a vague apocalypse. Mackie can usually charm his way out of a paper bag, but here he fades in with everything else.
Elevation is a redundant and unimaginative sci-fi programmer. It could play well as a fun B-movie over some drinks with friends, but if you’re expecting anything deeper you won’t find it here. George Nolfi is a competent filmmaker. The cast is full of historically good performers, some of them are really trying here. It just never comes together as anything memorable. The film has the ingredients of a great science fiction thriller, but the final product leaves much to be desired.
