Just in time for Valentine's Day, Skydance and Apple has released a new original monster movie titled THE GORGE.
Two highly trained operatives become close after being sent to protect opposite ends of a mysterious gorge. When an evil emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within.
From the posters, the movie does not look all that intriguing. It is all grey and purple, which automatically makes you not want to watch the movie. However, this movie you cannot judge a book (or movie, in this case) by the cover. This is more of a romance movie than a monster movie as you get to spend time to know the main characters Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy). The story does not over stay its welcome as I had grown to like these characters and had me at the edge of my seat wanting to see them survive.
Sigourney Weaver plays the lead villain Bartholomew. Her role in the film is small, but the character is more of a necessary evil as she tries to keep the gorge hidden from the public. Yet, she also has other plans that has to do with the monsters that reside inside the gorge. Dark Lake is the private company she runs that analyze the environment and the monsters inside the gorge. This company is like an evil version of "Monarch" from the Monsterverse movies.
The story is not a masterpiece like Godzilla Minus One nor is it groundbreaking in special effects. Everything is kept very simple. Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, and then comes turmoil that the couple must overcome. In all honesty, it is very welcoming to have characters in a monster movie that are likable. Most of the time, I would rather see the monster than the characters because the characters are boring. The movie didn't make me emotional over Levi and Drasa, but I cared about them enough to want to see these two come out alive.
When it comes to the monsters, the designs for them are actually really cool. Being called the "Hollow Men," these monsters are actually people that once lived inside or were sent inside the gorge and were exposed to chemicals that leaked out after being hit by an earthquake. DNA of all plants, animals, and humans were combined into one. The combined forces of the East and West have been keeping the Hollow Men contained within the gorge never allowing them to escape. The monsters and the environment inside the gorge delivers on the horror with the body horror and just the design of the Hollow Men make them terrifying enough.
Their appearance in the movie starts about eighteen minutes in and then again an half way through the movie. So the amount of time they appear are evenly spread out enough to break up the calm with some action sequences.
I do have a couple of complaints about this movie. One of them is that every dialogue is spoken softly and quiet. So quiet that I had to really turn the volume up just to hear what they were even talking. If I hadn't, then I would probably fall asleep and miss a good portion of the movie.
Another issue I have is a lot of it is background music because part of the story has Levi and Drasa stationed on opposite ends of the gorge without contact, but they write each other notes just to keep each other company. Fortunately, it does not last long. There is maybe ten minutes of them writing each other back and forth before they finally meet for a Valentine's Day dinner date.
The last issue is that there are a lot of dark scenes. A lot of the times it is hard to tell what I am looking at because there is not enough light to see what I am looking at whether it was the Hollow Men or other monsters that appear. This is usually to build suspense and tension, but when the action happens I want to be able to see what our characters are shooting at rather than a silhouette of the monsters.
Final Thoughts:
THE GORGE is a great movie that tells a simple romance story mixed as a monster movie. It is not a masterpiece, but it really had me at the edge of my seat wanting to see these characters come out alive. If you or a love one are fans of monster movies and need a good date movie, this is one that I definitely recommend checking out on Apple TV+.
Now, I want to what your thoughts are. Have you seen the movie? If so, did you like the movie or did you find it underwhelming? If you have not seen it then did this help you find interest in the movie? Leave a comment in the comments section of your thoughts on THE GORGE. Make sure to follow me on Facebook, Twitter, Minds, MeWe, and TRUTH Social to stay up to date for more news, reviews, and discussions.