I love when there’s a fun movie I can recommend that you are able to watch opening night from the comfort of your own couch. Don’t get me wrong, the movie theater experience is my favorite, but sometimes I like to come home from a long week of work, order in, put on pajamas, and see what’s streaming. APEX is the perfect movie for those vibes. Directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who is responsible for such survivalist films as EVEREST and ADRIFT, APEX is a cat-and-mouse thriller that is sure to leave you on the edge of your seat. Reminiscent of movies like THE RIVER WILD, this film is definitely not breaking the mold and does struggle a bit with predictability, but I still had a lot of fun with it and loved watching Charlize Theron in one of her most physical roles to date!
Sasha (Theron) is haunted by grief and guilt following the tragic death of her boyfriend (Eric Bana), the person who encouraged her to undertake extreme outdoors activities, like scaling giant mountains and sleeping overnight along the side of them. To come to terms with her loss, she travels back to his home country of Australia to undertake a difficult kayaking adventure. Sasha is so far in the Australian bush, her GPS can’t get signal so she stops at a gas station to get help finding her drop-in point.
The area is riddled with missing person fliers, showing just how dangerous these conditions can be. Leave it to seemingly friendly local Ben (Taron Egerton) to point Sasha in the right direction, showing her a short cut (red flag) she can undertake to get to the spot more quickly. But when Sasha arrives at the drop-in point and gets settled, things start to go very wrong, starting with her pack going mysteriously missing… and Ben coming back into the picture. You know that question about whether you would prefer to encounter a man or bear in the woods? This film shows the answer should always be the bear.
Let’s be real, the story of a woman running from a psychopath trying to kill her is a pretty well-trodden movie idea. And APEX’s script does struggle a bit to differentiate itself from all of the movies that came before it. There aren’t any twists—it’s pretty much exactly what you expect it to be. And because of that, it is the acting that really is the distinguisher. Because it is centered primarily around two characters, the film is only as good as the performances and both Egerton and Theron commit to making this work. It reminds me a lot of the aforementioned film THE RIVER WILD, which had similar high-caliber performances from Meryl Streep and Kevin Bacon, battling it out in the wilderness.
It’s always easy to root for Theron, especially when she is the outdoorsy, fierce lead of the film… a woman who can independently scale a cliff, white water kayak, and hike through the dangerous Australian backwoods. Egerton, on the other hand, holds nothing back as an unhinged lunatic, who takes pleasure in terrorizing his victims, no matter who they are. It’s a sadistic, gleeful game for him. This back-and-forth between Egerton’s derangement and Theron’s measured survivalism makes for a very interesting combination… and even more fun when Theron is able to get her bearings and fight back.
APEX knows to stop while it’s ahead, with a compact runtime a little over 90 minutes that makes it never feel like it has overstayed its welcome. I do wish the filmmakers had gone a little lighter on some of the CGI elements, which takes away from the film’s beautiful Australian scenery. But overall, it is a pulse-pounding, entertaining thriller, that will give you something fun to watch this weekend. With a film called APEX, it’s clear that it is trying to explore who is going to be the apex predator, a serial killer looking for his next hunt… or Charlize Theron. I know where I’m placing my bets.
My Review: B-
