Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Baltasar Kormakur
Starring: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana
Though his best film is the romantic drama Touch, Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur is best known for tough action movies and survival thrillers like Contraband, Everest and Beast. Apex is the closest Kormákur has come to helming a horror movie, but his action instincts run contrary to the horror genre. Depending how you view it, Apex is either a horror movie that wants to be an action movie or vice versa. Either way, the blending of action and horror is counter productive here.
The director is most in his element in the film's Cliffhanger-inspired prologue. It's here that we meet our heroine, Sasha (Charlize Theron), and her doomed hubby Tommy (Eric Bana). The thrill-seeking couple's latest expedition has brought them to Norway's formidable "Troll Wall" mountain range. Tommy is getting too old for this shit, and he tries to warn Sasha that maybe they should slow things down. But when your other half looks like Charlize Theron you do whatever she says, and so Tommy presses on despite the unfavourable conditions. This leads to Tommy taking an inevitable plunge off the mountain, leaving Sasha with demons to conquer. Sound the "TRAUMA!!!" claxon!
Five months later we find Sasha in the Australian outback, where she plans a solo kayaking expedition despite the obligatory warning from a park ranger that several people have gone missing in the area. When a couple of sweaty rejects from Razorback try to hit on Sasha, local jerky salesman Ben (Taron Egerton) steps in. He also gives her a tip on where to go if she wants some privacy, but it's all part of Ben's cunning plan to get Sasha alone in the woods for a Most Dangerous Game hunt, all with the intent of tenderising her before turning her into some delicious jerky.
Sasha is very much an action heroine rather than a horror protagonist, and so we always feel like she has the upper hand on Ben. Egerton makes Ben very creepy, but in a tortured Norman Bates way. Let's face it, had he not caught her off guard in the shower, Marion Crane would have probably kicked young Norman's ass. For a horror movie to work, we need to feel like the heroine is out of her depth, so casting Furiosa herself is a bad move from the off.
Kormákur shoots the chase for action thrills rather than suspense, and this leaves us with the impression that all Sasha has to do is run faster than her pursuer. But the movie cheats its geography, with Ben getting ahead of his prey with no explanation of how he manages such a feat. As is so often the case with such movies, Sasha occasionally makes dumb decisions for the sake of putting herself in danger.
Where it really falls apart is in the final act when Jeremy Robbins' script takes a disastrous turn that instantly deflates what little tension has been built up at that point. We never feel like Sasha isn't in control of the situation, and the death of her husband fails to affect her in the way you might imagine (this isn't Vertigo, or even Cliffhanger for that matter). Unable to invest in the dynamic between Sasha and Ben, we're left to admire the scenery. It's a win for the Australian tourist board, a loss for Netflix subscribers.
Apex is on Netflix from April 24th.
