Elevation is a sci-fi horror film about a post-apocalyptic scenario in which creatures have taken over the world, having come out of sinkholes in the ground, and they can't go into elevations any higher than 8000 ft, so survivors must live at or above this level. While this is an interesting concept, the execution of this idea was terrible.
The creatures that have taken over the planet are called "Reapers". They have very alien-like features and are large and fast. How enough of them were able to remain undetected to cause the entire world to lose a war against them, who knows? But I digress. The plot being a bit silly isn't even the main reason this film failed. It was pretty much a series of calamities.
The plot in itself was a neat concept. Creatures that can't go above 8000 feet? Ok. But then you throw all of the other bad writing in there, and it is just one "wtf" moment after another. This film seems like it should have been released by Asylum. We have questions. For instance, why out of the entire planet did it take a few people in the mountains of Colorado to figure out the truth about the monsters? And three years later? Why does Will (Anthony Mackie) decide to risk his life to go on a suicide mission into Boulder to get oxygen for his son, who is already dying? The oxygen is finite. What happens when he runs out again? There are just too many things that don't make any sense peppered throughout this awful story to keep any intrigue about the over-arching plot.
The sadder reality is that the star of this film, Anthony Mackie, has the depth of a puddle in his acting ability. He reminds us of Chris Rock in Spiral. Just a blank expression most of the time. Will didn't even really react when someone from his community died who had been around him for a good part of the film. If we had to choose between he and Tommy Wiseau to star in this, knowing how the Mackie version ended up, we would choose Wiseau every time. And considering how much faith Marvel is putting into him for Captain America, it's just wild. He was decent in Twisted Metal, but his ability is not A-list. It's harder to spot in an episode of a TV show than it is to watch him try to lead a film for 90 minutes. His inadequacies become much more apparent.
Overall, we would not recommend that anyone see this movie. The writing doesn't make sense, we have seen thumbs that act with more skill and emotion than Anthony Mackie, and Elevation just isn't even Redbox-worthy (current state), let alone box office.
