(SPECIAL NOTE: Capsule review of the same film is available here.)
More experienced fans of science fiction cinema tend to watch out for three things in any upcoming title of that particular genre - low budget, time travel as major plot point and homicidal robots as chief villains. When all three of those elements are brought together in the same film, the results are rarely above abysmal. The Terminator, one of the best time travel films of all times, had all those three ingredients, but it is usually considered to be an exception to the rule. At first glance, A.P.E.X., 1994 science-fiction film directed by Phillip J. Roth, might look like nothingn more than cheap copy of The Terminator, but it is actually one of those very rare instances when low budget, time travel and homicidal robots don't produce a bad piece of cinema.
Plot begins in Los Angeles 2073 AD where the group of scientists led by Doctor Nicholas Sinclair (played by Richard Keats) conduct a time travel research. One of their experiments goes terribly wrong and for a brief period of time Sinclair is transported back to 1973 AD. Upon his return to 2073 AD Sinclair sees that the world has changed beyond recognition - Los Angeles has turned into plague-stricken wasteland where few survivors, including his wife Natasha (played by Lisa Ann Russell), fight desperate war against A.P.E.X. killer robots. Those robots had been made by Sinclair's laboratory and designed to kill any witness and erase every trace of time travel and thus prevent the time paradox. Sinclair knows that the only way to stop the robots is to erase the time paradox, so he must start looking for a workable time machine in ruins of Los Angeles in order to correct the fatal mistake during the initial experiment.
Thorough nit-picking of Roth's and Ronald Schmidt's script would probably find a lot of logical flaws and implausibilities, but A.P.E.X. looks a masterpiece compared with similar films. This is mostly due to rather cerebral approach to the problem of time travel and its consequences, including the time paradox, which is usually, absent in most other examples of this popular sub- genre. In A.P.E.X. the time paradox not only exists but it is the cause of all trouble and it must be dealt with. The more intellectual approach can be also seen in movie's protagonist who happens to be scientist instead of action hero. His character, as well as many others, are fleshed out nicely and played by relatively unknown but truly competent actors. Like in all classic films by James Cameron, action scenes are intertwined with character exposure and as a result, the viewers tend to care what happens to the protagonists. A.P.E.X. is surprisingly good even in technical side. The lack of budget is compensated with good use of locations and CGI. Unfortunately, the shootout scenes are done rather poorly and rely too much on sometimes tiring pyrotechnics. But the end result is still the intelligent, entertaining piece that gives a good name to low budget science fiction films.
RATING: 7/10 (+++)
(Note: The text in its original form was posted in Usenet newsgroup rec.arts.movies.reviews on July 10th 2001)
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Movie URL: https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/21947-a-p-e-x?language=en-US Critic: AA
