Elevation Christian Review

Imagine watching a movie that feels like a half-remembered dream. You’ve seen versions of it before—the gritty setting, the desperate fight for survival, the eerie silence broken by the sounds of unseen dangers. Welcome to Elevation, a film that seems to settle comfortably into its genre without much ambition to transcend it. At a brisk ninety minutes, it offers the kind of escape that doesn’t demand much reflection or reveal any new insight. But perhaps the strangest part of it all is that it manages to feel both thrilling and oddly hollow, as if there’s something substantial missing beneath the tension.

Following a Familiar Map: Survival Without Depth

From the opening scene, Elevation lets us know we’re on well-trodden ground. There’s an apocalyptic backdrop, a cast of characters who feel as if they’ve been plucked from a catalog of disaster tropes, and an atmosphere heavy with foreboding. The setup is almost cliché: the world has unraveled, the rules have changed, and survival is the only goal that matters. Yet, for all its darkness and grit, Elevation never quite takes the plunge into the deeper waters it skims so tantalizingly.

Morena Baccarin leads the cast as a former Caltech professor, whose background ostensibly equips her with a wealth of scientific knowledge about the monsters they face. But her character is disappointingly one-dimensional—her lines delivered with a kind of detached monotone that seems more resigned than afraid. You can almost feel Baccarin straining to bring depth to a character who simply doesn’t have it. In a genre known for complex protagonists grappling with fear and loss, Baccarin’s performance is a little too restrained, her character’s trauma left unexplored and vague.

Crafted Tension: A Lean, Visual Thriller

It must be said, Elevation is technically sound. The cinematography captures the desolation of a ruined world with impressive, almost poetic precision, and the editing keeps the tension wound tightly. In those quiet moments, when the characters are listening to the sounds of the unseen monsters moving closer, the film manages to pull you in. There are fleeting moments of real suspense, enough to make your heart race if you let yourself get lost in the atmosphere.

However, the scares are of the “jump-scare” variety, designed to make you flinch but not leave a lasting impression. Elevation relies heavily on its pacing to build and release tension, a strategy that works but doesn’t elevate the experience. The problem is that it stays on the surface, creating suspense without giving it a real emotional anchor. You’ll feel the thrill, sure, but it’s a thrill without substance—like a haunted house where you know all the ghosts are just people in masks.

Spiritual Depth? Don’t Expect It Here

As a Christian viewer, you might enter Elevation looking for more than just action. Survival tales often have the potential to explore themes of faith, redemption, resilience, and even grace under pressure. But Elevation seems uninterested in such reflections. There’s no journey of self-discovery, no questioning of higher purpose, and no real exploration of the human condition beyond the immediate need to survive. It’s all very utilitarian, like watching people run from danger without really knowing or caring why they want to live.

Where Elevation could have gone deeper—examining the weight of faith in the face of despair, or offering a redemptive arc for its battered characters—it chooses instead to skim over such possibilities. It’s frustrating because, in the right hands, these themes could have turned this survival thriller into something genuinely profound. Instead, we’re left with a story that, while technically competent, feels strangely devoid of soul.

Unremarkable Characters, Unfulfilled Potential

Perhaps the most disappointing aspect of Elevation is its cast of characters. These are survivors, people who have lived through unimaginable horrors, and yet their personalities are as muted as the desolate landscape they traverse. Baccarin’s character, with her monotone exposition and unconvincing grief, is emblematic of the film’s approach to characterization. The supporting cast fares no better, delivering their lines as if they’re going through the motions without any real conviction.

It’s almost as if Elevation wants to focus more on the atmosphere than the people in it. The characters serve as little more than placeholders, vehicles to move the story along without ever asking us to invest in them emotionally. We don’t get to see who they are beyond their immediate actions, which makes it difficult to care about their fates. There’s a missed opportunity here to dig into the psychological toll of survival, to show us what faith and endurance look like when the world has fallen apart.

Escapism Without Lasting Impact

Now, if all you want is a bit of escapism—a simple, straightforward thriller that doesn’t ask too much of you—then Elevation might just fit the bill. It’s a film designed to give you a few scares, hold your attention for an hour and a half, and then release you without any lingering questions. You could say it’s the cinematic equivalent of a rollercoaster: fun in the moment, but ultimately shallow.

But for those hoping for something more, something with substance and meaning, Elevation will likely fall short. It’s a thriller that takes no risks, a story that never bothers to scratch beneath the surface. And while there’s nothing wrong with escapism, there’s a sense that Elevation could have been more if it had only dared to try.

Final Verdict: A Hollow Thriller That Leaves You Wanting

In the end, Elevation feels like a shadow of what it could have been. It’s competently made, with a few well-executed scares and enough atmosphere to keep it from feeling completely empty. But as a film that purports to explore survival in a post-apocalyptic world, it lacks the depth, complexity, and emotional resonance that would make it truly memorable.

For a Christian audience, Elevation doesn’t offer much in the way of spiritual substance. It’s a film that looks at survival without ever questioning what makes life worth living. There’s no exploration of faith, no sense of grace or redemption—just a lot of running, hiding, and fighting with no real purpose beyond survival.

With a rating of 5 out of 10, Elevation is watchable but forgettable. It’s a film that might entertain you for an evening, but it won’t leave you with anything to ponder after the credits roll. And perhaps that’s the most disappointing thing of all: Elevation isn’t a bad film, but it’s a hollow one, a story that hints at deeper themes without ever daring to explore them.