Elevation

Prospective future instalments might want to aim higher than mere competency.

Everyone is solid in this and you see a lot of lovely aerial shots of the Rocky Mountains.

It’s odd and impersonal, and produces a film that feels just as detached from its visual style as it does from its characters.

There are exactly enough thrills to fill a 90-minute movie, including the closing credits. No more and no less. So thank god Elevation is short or it probably would have stunk.

Expedited world-building, dynamic action scenes, and just enough real-world thematic relevance to ground otherwise thinly written characters.

“Elevation” is distinctive not for its innovations in form or narrative — it’s got nothing new to offer — but for the anxieties and attitudes it telegraphs.

No one's going to fear the reapers in Elevation, a dumb, grossly derivative blast of lazy sci-fi schlock barely managing to reconfigure borrowed story elements enough to avoid blatant creative appropriation.

For a movie that plays out in such a lovely rugged landscape, everything else about it is flatter than a tortilla under tank treads.

Should appeal to fans of the “move/make a sound and you’re dead” genre thrillers like A Quiet Place. The genre hasn’t been pillaged completely so a film like Elevation with a likable cast and inspired director can provide plenty of thrills and excitement.

... This thrifty, competent sci-fi isn’t the worst you’ll see this year. But it lacks the imagination and, indeed, the thrills, to sit alongside the best.