3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Elevation

2024, George Nolfi (The Banker) -- download

This is a monster movie, a post-apocalypse movie, and thus a survival movie (probably the only non-survival post-apocalypse is "The Road", as long as we exempt pure actioners). The pitch, the trailer, the premise is that something came out of the ground and started killing people, and somehow survivors found out the monsters could not go above 8000 feet. So, our main characters have been living for a number of years in a remote community above Boulder. Colorado. Until they are inspired to go back below the elevation line.

These are familiar monsters. The movies have been dealing with them for a number of years: A Quiet Place, Bird Box and The Tomorrow War, etc. Each of their monsters are different in look & feel, though I did say that the last one had "...lizard-y bug-y tentacl-y things..."  (it also reminds me of the Moorwen from Jim Caviezel's 2008 Outlander, with its feline stalking and tentacles) but they are all singularly focused on ending human life, with a little help from vast numbers and nigh invulnerability. I wonder at the psychology behind this particular genre -- not a human monster, not a virus, not a war among ourselves that ends the world, but a very outside force, one that wipes us out and we can barely understand, let alone fight back.

Will (Anthony Mackie, Twisted Metal) lives in the mountain top community with his son Hunter (Danny Boyd Jr, Watchmen). Hunter's mom was lost during an expedition below the safe line with scientist Nina (Morena Baccarin, The Mentalist), and Will has never forgiven her. To be fair, she has never forgiven herself, and spends her days drunk but performing various tests which involve shooting at a scale, a piece of armour, which we assume came from a creature, which they call Reapers. But Hunter's time is running out. He sleeps every night with some sort of CPAP machine that depend on filters, of which they are running out of. Will knows he has to head to Boulder to get more. He convinces Nina to join him cuz she "owes him" and his late wife's best friend Katie (Maddie Hasson, Impulse) demands to come along -- she is secretly-not-so-secretly in love with Will.

In these movies, the point is to get from A to B, with this movie also needing a B back to A, but really its just the first journey that matters. The formula demands we start by taking it slow, keeping the monsters hidden, get to know the characters a bit, some conflict, some exposition about the monsters, how they work, and a bit of recollection about The Time Before. And then we switch to tension and chase scenes, combat in closed quarters, almost always futile, until the corner gets turned.

A Quiet Place excelled at the ... ahem... quiet bits, the "getting to know them" bits, and unfortunately all coming after will be compared. The exposition in this movie is a bit too pedestrian, and sure it scratches an itch, but despite me wanting to say some positive things about it, as I did enjoy the experience, I cannot say it excelled at anything.  Will is Anthony Mackie, Katie is a brave, pretty blonde (code for "red shirt" in these movies) and Nina was the only one an inch above cardboard -- I did enjoy Morena Baccarin's traumatized scientist, I cannot she was great. I want to be an apologist for the movie, I want to feel about the movie as we did Battle: Los Angeles, a solid B man-vs-alien movie, but in the end, even the monster reveal and fight scenes are barely above passable.

I wonder if its my mood of late, that very little is going above meh-driven distraction into the "enjoyable" phase. I did enjoy myself watching the movie, but primarily because this kind of movie is my genre. Nothing about it is as bad as straight-to or mockbuster, as the effects are decent and the monster is creative enough, but... I want more?

Going back to my second paragraph, the meta of these movies, this is where I find my most enjoyment. This is where my own head-canon pondering, the filling in of details, win out over what the movie gives me. And yes, I am spoiling for anyone who might care -- this is another example of the "alien sends monster ahead to clear the planet for them". None of these movies have explicitly said this sort of thing, but this one goes the furthest in acknowledging it -- the monsters are bio-mechanical in nature, just killing machines instead of actual apex predators, and the movie does end with a "3 new stars in the sky" scene, foretelling the coming of the creators. Will this movie get a sequel where we actually fight the master aliens? Doubt it, but it was interesting that the movie led us there.