The Gorge movie review: Two highly trained operatives sent to guard opposite sides of a mysterious gorge get close and personal before they discover they were played for a fool
The Gorge movie review
Cast: Anya Taylor-Joy, Miles Teller, Sigourney Weaver, Sope Dirisu, William Houston, Samantha Coughlan, Alessandro Garcia, Greta Hansen
Director: Scott Derrickson
Rating: 2.5/5
Runtime: 127 min
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Scott Derrickson’s “The Gorge” is a typical actioner with a convoluted plot and a lot of sound and fury. It starts off promisingly and peters out in a gamey end play.
Two highly trained operatives sent to guard opposite sides of a mysterious gorge get close and personal before they discover they were played for a fool. The evil that emerges from the gorge is less dangerous than the handlers who sent them out to die.
Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) are elite snipers from opposing world powers who have been assigned to guard the titular location, a massive gorge in an undisclosed country. They are clueless as to what’s in store for them or why they in particular were chosen until they discover the hidden evil.
We get to know about Levi’s PTSD and Drasa’s dying father but that’s not as important to the scheme of things as what comes after.
Sigourney Weaver has a small role as Levi’s superior and Sope Dirisu gets to expound on the exposition - Dirisu is the doomed soldier who explains the assignment to Levi: Guard the gorge from what might come out of it.
There are a surfeit of weapons and bombs rigged on the walls of the gorge. Levi is lucky enough that he has the gorgeous Drasa, guarding the gorge from across the chasm. They fall in love and then all hell breaks loose.
Teller and Taylor-Joy don’t steam the screen but they manage enough likability that their romance seems plausible. The dialogue is pithy but the actors manage to overcome that handicap with their quirky charm.
“The Gorge” really kicks into gear with crazy set pieces and remarkable creature design, with the accompanying score from Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor drumming up the stakes. The film’s limiting bag of thrills become more apparent when Levi accidentally falls into the gorge with Drasa rushing to rescue him. The two find a world beneath them that is a trap of mutated insects, noxious gases and skeletal monsters. Derrickson offers a handful of darkly ominous shots and jump scares, but niggardly attempts to build dread fail to have any impact.
The film, a genre mash-up, takes too long to set-up and rushes its ending in a gamey unsatisfying finale. Dean’s script blends elements of horror, action, sci-fi, and romance in a sometimes muddled mixture that may not entirely displease.The first 40 odd minutes of the film is engaging enough, thereafter it gets too gamey to play out as a genuine action thriller.
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