Comwayon
A Disappointing Continuation
Yash Wade
Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.
Lela
The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
Bloodwank
I first saw A.P.E.X. a long, long while back, I couldn't have been more than about 10 years old at the time and my understanding of it was negligible. All I really remembered was cool robots and a complicated story involving time travel and a plague, which was about enough to convince me to give it a second shot when it appeared on TV, since the passage of years has given early 90's straight to video science fiction of this sort a curious fascination for me that actually outstrips the excitement that they originally induced. Remarkably A.P.E.X. actually repaid my interest, its certainly no classic but as far as its genre goes it certainly ain't too bad. The key is the plot, the film deals in a pretty interesting science fiction concept with a neat emotional hook for its main character. Basically, a mishap involving an exploratory time travelling robot results in our hero landing in a parallel reality that has branched off from his own, confronting him with his greatest fear, that of losing his beloved wife. The film tries to deal with post apocalyptic themes, parallel worlds and the consequences of paradoxes upon the time line, and though it can't quite keep itself together its imaginative and intriguing stuff. The plot actually holds up better than a number of reviews here would suggest, although there are one or two notable holes and clear contrivances. Despite problems the ambition is laudable, it's just a shame that the same ambition didn't carry over to the action, which mostly consists of repetitious shoots outs with robots. The pyrotechnics budget was clearly decent so there are plenty of explosions, plus the robots are pretty cool, shining golden creates with ridge plated armour and both shoulder and hand cannons. But the action gets dull pretty quickly and neither the robots nor humans have realistic or interesting tactics. Acting turns do a better than expected job of sustaining interest, though nobody is much more than merely "there" certain of the cast do convey a certain sympathy and interest. Richard Keats for example as the hero, he can't put across much reaction to the situation but is likable enough, Lisa Anne Russell has a sullen attractiveness, Marcus Aurelius appropriately grating as the token a-hole character, it's all fair enough for this level of film. Some of the writing works, some doesn't and while I appreciated that the film wasn't bogged down with techno-babble it could have done with a bit more explanation. The direction from Philip J. Roth (who turned out to be a low budget sci fi regular and also wrote the film) is occasionally stylish in its use of lighting, with green, red and dark moments put to good effect, he has a fair handling on atmosphere but I wish he had put more flair into the action. Altogether I thought this was a fair enough film. Only likely to appeal to sci fi buffs and they'll probably have a field day tearing it apart, but I had a reasonable enough time. 5/10 from me then.
davideo-2
STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All CostsIn the year 2073,Nicholas Sinclair (Richard Keats) is a scientist working at a time travelling research facility.He has a wife,the beautiful Natasha (Lisa Ann Russell) and works under the command of Dr Elgin (David Jean Thomas).One day,they send a probe 100 years in to the past and completely change the course of history.While attempting to sort out the peoblem,Sinclair finds himself convulted to a present where he finds himself a member of an elite squadron of soldiers,including pent-up muscle man Shepherd (Mitchell Cox),volatile macho man Taylor (Marcus Aurelis) and reserved background man Rasheed (Adam Lawson),not to mention Natasha,who in the present he could remember was his sweet,humble wife but who here is a 'hardened combat soldier',battling an army of robots who can't shoot straight.Sinclair must survive in this hostile environment long enough to find a way back to the present he remembers and stop the accident from ever happening.The plot is as blatant a rip off of T2 as you could hope to find without the producers being sued for copyright theft,right down to the grey robots causing lots of death and destruction.Said robots are actually really cool,though rather clunky in both their appearance and movement,cruelly exposing the production values of a film that must have had a pretty high budget for a film of it's made-for-video magnitude.They're not the only problems the film must contend with,however.It must also reckon with a dodgy,confused storyline that never seems to move from one sequence to the next with much in the way of coherence and one or two characters who are just that little bit too contrived in the mould in which they were sculpted to be taken that seriously.There is,however,some good,involving acting on display,not to mention some enjoyable action and one inventive sequence involving a music CD being inserted in to one of the robots when it really shouldn't.You didn't get a scene like that in T2,did you?Speaking of which,both films are enjoyable enough on their own seperate levels.It's just,I dunno.T2 is Alton Towers,this is the mop fair.Y' know what I'm sayin'?***
a55965
I Bought APEX for three Reasons 1)It was Sci fi 2)It was Cheap 3)My friend Recommened it to me
And for £4 english quid ($6 american dollars ) i was not disapointed i liked the voice over it gave a good touch and i liked the story ,the marines wasnt much of marines though (mixture of aliens and The Terminator 1 flash back scenes) the costume was ok but the plastic looking rocket launcher thing was dodgy , and i wont mention the extraordinary square stomachs when they get shot . The robots were really dodgy they looked camp and stiff and laughable but they do the job because when you see them all togrther at the end (predator 2)you think damn ! i wouldnt want to be in the marines boots (well i would) i guess it would be better if it was not set in the desert as much instead in a crumbled city at night where its raining ! well done though to Phillip J Roth both he and Albert Pyun are making a lot of films im liking.
Jonathan Horner
Wow! Hold the phone! This is one BAD movie! I bought it for £2.99 in the b-movie section, I suppose you can't ask for much, but this takes the cake!A.P.E.X stars a load of useless actors who I've never heard of before. The evil robots which get sent back in time look like something out of the Power Rangers! Also, the robots I.Q is very low, they stand there in the line of fire getting shot to pieces and don't even attempt to eliminate the enemy! Plus they have really, really bad aim!The group of marines who are sent to kill these evil robots are useless and don't look like professional soldiers at all. They simply stand there in the middle of the carnage which is riddled with evil robots and have a conversation! Oh yeah, and there's one really annoying soldier who has a very serious attitude problem.If your a really big die hard sci-fi action movie fan then you may, like this movie, otherwise forget it!3/10
