A.P.E.X.

I really like the premise of the film; time travel; time continuum violation; a scientist trapped in a violent world. His wife in his own world, is now,in his new world, a tough soldier, stricken with a fatal virus; and she doesn't even like him. He is trying desperately to repair the damage to time, and return the world from that of a violent war zone, beset by robots trying to exterminate all human life, to his own advanced and sophisticated culture. The idea, and the low budget presentation, are intriguing.

I do not believe that every science fiction film can or will have a huge budget and expensive special effects. I enjoyed the actors, the acting and the adventure. I was able to immerse myself in the characters and flow right through the film with them. A.P.E.X has a strong plot, excellent continuity, good science, adventure, suspense and lots of excitement. The director did an excellent job of creating a world on the verge of extinction, hanging onto its humanity by slender threads.

The only elements I did not care for at all, were the extremely foul language that pervaded the entire film; and the degrading stereotyping of the black soldier. He was a good actor, and had a lot more to offer than that of a modern day ghetto brute. His character could have been rough and crude without being completely obscene. All they had to do was leave out all the bad language. The actor did a fine job with his role anyway. I enjoyed his rendition of his character.

I often think that some day, in a more enlightened cultural time frame, we are going to be completely ashamed of the foul language that currently pervades and debases even our finest films. There will possibly be an effort to clean up the old films, and a debate will rage as to whether this is akin to colorization, and destroys the artistic intent of the films. Let us hope.

At any rate, A.P.E.X. is an enjoyable science fiction experience, even with the obscenities intact. I recommend it for mature science fiction fans.

In the year 2072, a top secret, military-funded experiment dedicated to exploring time sends an APEX (Advanced Prototype Explorer) robot 100 years back in time. Technician Nicholas Sinclair is accidentally thrown back in time after the robot self-destructs. When he returns to the future, he finds himself in a timeline alien to him where mankind is fighting an army of APEX robot soldiers as well as a killer virus caused by time travel.

At first glance, this direct-to-video clone of The Terminator is clearly a B-grade low budget effort, as evidenced by cheap special effects (although the robots are very convincing). However, the film has something which sets it apart from the rest of the killer robot films around – a dose of imagination. The time-travel plot is very well conducted & plausible, although there is a plot hole – where are the robots coming from? With this in mind, the story is well written. The acting is extremely effective, with the actors giving a fair go as far as performances are concerned. Director Roth, known for his slick B-grade action films, conducts the film with a flair for realistic action scenarios.

Grade: B

Review by M. K. Geist.

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.

This is billed as a time travel paradox movie - it's really a poorly thought out cardboard shoot-em up. It's full of inconsistencies and even the supposed paradox is flimsy at best.

Berserk robo fans might [at 2am on a stormy night] see something in it but science/sci-fi it ain't.

Nicolas Sinclair is one of the team operating the time travelling APEX (Advanced Prototype EXploration unit) in the year 2073. When one of the APEX probes is accidentally sent back to an area containing a family in 1973, a sterilisation probe is launched to destroy any chance of a time paradox. However Sinclair himself goes back to 1973 to stop the unit – but in doing so he creates a paradox and unleashes a virus. When he returns to 2073 he finds the paradox has created a new timeline where the humans are in a war with APEX units sent from hi timeline to destroy the paradox.

Have you seen Terminator – you bet your ass that Phillip J. Roth has! He certainly drew a lot of inspiration from it when he wrote this. Having said that, the story is actually alright – the whole time travel, killer robots thing has been done before, but that doesn't make it less interesting. It doesn't go anywhere unexpected but it is not as bad as you suspect it might be.

What does let the story down a little is the rest of the production. Produced by Talaat Captan (strangely no Oscar nominations yet!) it seems his biggest input was to get his son cast in one of the roles. The whole thing has a TVM feel – despite the swearing and violence. The special effects are cheap and very reminiscent of a straight to video sci-fi, the locations are good if basic – only the occasional interior shot looks like cardboard. But really you can see the budget constraints up there on screen.

The tight budget goes through to the cast – they aren't great and aren't helped by some poor dialogue. Keats, Cox, Russell etc are all TVM actors but they do actually do alright considering. The APEX units themselves are mixed – they look cheap at first, but then you forget that they look cheap. But then after a while you realise that they're rubbish – they can't shoot straight at all while the humans just need one powerful hit to get them (or even a music CD!). This takes away from the tension of the film – at least with Arnie you knew without a doubt that he was one mean mother who wasn't going to miss!

Overall this has some entertaining moments but is really a TVM with attitude – catch it now on the bottom shelf of your video store….