‘Apex’ Movie Review: Charlize Theron And Taron Egerton Elevate Solid Tom-And-Jerry Thriller
Photo from Netflix
From Jeremy Kibler
Baltasar Kormákur’s Apex is a sufficiently tense, straight-ahead survival thriller that occupies similar territory to Cliffhanger, The River Wild, and even Wolf Creek. Without trying to reinvent the wheel of nature-based cat-and-mouse thrillers, it does do what it says on the tin, getting more than enough mileage out of its familiar scenario — and Taron Egerton and Charlize Theron make a solid Tom and Jerry.
Sasha (Charlize Theron) and Tommy (Eric Bana) are adrenaline junkies on a dangerous climb in the Norway mountains. Let’s just say Tommy isn’t feeling the thrill anymore, and this will be his final climb. Five months later, Sasha takes her grief to the Australian outback, rafting alone in a national park where many, many people have vanished and the local men are lecherous weirdos. Luckily—at first—there is one nice, unthreatening guy and his name is Ben (played by Taron Egerton), a beef jerky-selling hunter who sticks up for Sasha and tries not to be overly friendly to come across as creepy. Then again, once Sasha sets up her tent, the crossbow comes out and she becomes the hunted by the psychotic Ben.
Apex takes a pretty foreseeable trajectory—beautiful woman gets chased in the woods by a seemingly harmless but deeply deranged man—and yet, the chase can be exciting to watch. The script by Jeremy Robbins doesn’t try to delve deep into Ben’s psyche, nor does Sasha have much more character than “Grieving Adventurous Type,” but that’s where A-list stars come in and elevate the material. It also doesn’t hurt that the film looks better than a lot of Netflix movies, courtesy of Lawrence Sher’s gorgeous cinematography capturing the Australian vistas.
You want Charlize Theron to survive, albeit not because the character of Sasha is an interesting or fully drawn character but because she looks like Charlize Theron. It’s a test to Theron being such a magnetic and dynamic performer because the arc Sasha reaches is never quite as powerful as the film wants it to be. Still, Theron is certainly up to the physical challenges the film has in store for her, keeping Sasha as an adventurous, agile and very capable athlete without turning her into a super-powered ass-kicker. Taron Egerton is certainly having a hammy ball as a human hunter, even if his viciousness is never given much more dimension than crazed whacko with acquired inclinations.
Admittedly, Apex does take a rather savage and nasty turn, and to some, it might not fully recover from there. Some of the effects with Sasha getting sent down a river are often more convincing if they were in a video game, but the effect is still more thrilling and immersive than not. Palms will definitely sweat when Sasha is free soloing. As a genre exercise, Apex fits the bill, but it will hardly be remembered by National Mountain Climbing Day in August.
Rating: 3/5
Apex is currently streaming on Netflix.
