This is one of those movies that you immediately know what they’re about. There’s no need for a complex analysis or anything like that. You probably saw at least ten of them already, and this is just another example of why the formula works. Apex is an aesthetically pleasing survival thriller following a woman trying to escape from a serial killer in the Australian wilderness. That’s it. I have to admit that I was expecting a croc or two, but didn’t get any. If you’re already going with such a green and vibrant environment, it’s a real shame if you don’t add a true prehistoric apex (pun intended) predator. I guess Baltasar Kormákur (Contraband, Everest) saw how his last predator movie, Beast, went. Featuring Idris Elba fighting off lions in Africa, it wasn’t that good. I vaguely remember turning it off after 30 minutes or so.
As soon as you hit that play button, you should turn off your brain. Don’t try to rationalize or figure out how stuff like this happens, just witness it. Mostly because there will be no good answers. How did he know to go there? Was the phone already in place, or did he use some elaborate ploy to turn it on? Why didn’t she stay in the water? If you like to vent your frustrations, you sure can vent a lot while watching this movie. Apes stars Charlize Theron as Sasha, an extreme sports enthusiast who, after a tragedy, found her next adventure. At fifty years old, she still looks great, at least twenty years younger. Having recently watched a couple of climbing documentaries, you can see she trained hard for this role.
Skinny but strong, she makes those climbs and physical stunts look quite realistic. And she did a lot of them herself. However, her facial expressions were a bit strange. It’s like her face, her original face, is set in stone. She has one facial expression, and that’s about it. Opposite of her, we have Taron Egerton, who people say aged 20 years after his last movie. It’s wild that a lack of hair in men can trigger this sort of change. At least that’s what I think happened here. He compensated for the lack of Charlize’s emotions with his, showing us a pretty dark side of Taron. Or maybe that’s just due to the fact that I watched him only as a good guy up until this movie. So, we have our two leads, but there’s a third one.
And that third lead is the stunning, beautiful Australian landscape. This is a huge country that has deserts, mountains, jungles, swamps, bush, it has fucking everything. A place of abundance. A place of abundance where something is always trying to kill you. Apex features phenomenal cinematography showing the true beauty of this vibrant country. Add to this strong camerawork, and you’ve got yourself a true eye-candy. Every shot is perfectly framed, and the action sequences feel really intense. All of this should make for a rather stereotypical and quite predictable story. A story with few characters and pretty low stakes.
I mean, I don’t think it’s a spoiler when I say that right from the start, we knew Sasha was going to make it. Especially when you consider the commercial vibe of the project. When there’s no real tension in the atmosphere, you’re just left with the one during stunts. Then again, if they added more characters, possible to kill off, this would’ve been a different type of movie. Again, we should not delve deeper than this with Apex. This is a forgettable, single-use product to be discarded after viewing. And we should treat it as such. Sure, in about ten to fifteen years, you’ll surely forget all about it, but that’s a different story. For a different time.
Finally, you should know that Apex features some pretty gnarly imagery towards the end. We almost crossed over into horror territory with some of the scenes. Remember, this was the default for the movies featuring the same kind of story. The Most Dangerous Game came out almost a hundred years ago, back in 1932. And if you want something more recent, The Hunt is a good choice.
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writers: Jeremy Robbins
Cast: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana, Matt Whelan, Aaron Pedersen, Zac Garred
Fun Facts: Charlize Theron said about Apex: “In thirty years, I’ve made a lot of movies, and I’ve loved all of them for different reasons, but there’s something about this movie: the way we shot it, where we shot it, the time in my life when I needed to go and find something where I could just immerse myself into a world. This movie was everything that I wanted, and then the end result was everything that I hoped for before we went to go do it.”
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IMDb Link: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16431404/
