A Cute Action Movie – The Gorge (Movie Review)

“The world’s most dangerous secret lies between them.

Two highly trained operatives grow close from a distance after being sent to guard opposite sides of a mysterious gorge. When an evil below emerges, they must work together to survive what lies within.” – Letterboxd Synopsis

I don’t often use this word to describe things and I’m shocked that it is the best descriptor for this movie about two elite special forces agents from the US and Russia tasked with guarding their respective outposts that look over a mysterious gorge, but this movie is very cute. It isn’t great by any means, but I enjoyed it for what it is and overall had a solid time watching this.

I still really love the premise of this movie even though it does show its hand very early and the mystery of what the gorge is was kind of a let down in terms of it, but there are cool things that they do with it. The first half of this movie is the best. When that mystery is still strong and moreover you have this relationship between these two characters developing. There interactions were so cute and heartwarming. There dynamic is what made this movie and that was let down by the rest of it which was disappointing, cliche in some aspects and kind of boring. But those two, loved them.

The best part of this movie is Levi (Miles Teller) and Drasa (Anya Taylor-Joy) interacting, getting to know each other, and falling in love in the first half of the movie. The way they would communicate and talk to each other with their notes and binoculars was very cute. They had awesome chemistry. I liked both of their characters individually, and how their trauma from their past helped them come together. It was really sweet/cute.

I was a bit disappointed in the action, though. This movie actually surprised me more than a few times with some cool camera shots and scene direction that never really felt like it transferred over to the raw action moments. I will say, any moment with them just sniping was really damn cool, but the action outside of that was meh at best. Which is a shame because there ends up being a lot of action in this movie, particularly in the second half. I will say the mix of practical sets and cgi is really well done. While I didn’t particularly love the monster designs, I appreciate how they looked. The sets and environments look really good though.

So yeah, The Gorge is an alright movie with strong leading actors. Miles and Anya really carry this with their chemistry. Especially in the first half, I loved their dynamic and interactions. This movie looked great and had some great environments and sets, especially in the second half of it. Unfortunately, the mystery of the gorge and what it is and what lies within it, was a letdown to me and the mystique is lost way too early and never really built back up. The second half of the movie is also pretty action heavy and never really hits the spot. The main villain is bad and stupid. I think this movie had more potential based on its premise than it actually delivered.

The Gorge: 6/10