A.P.E.X.

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.

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.

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….

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.