Baltasar Kormákur Fumbles a Great Premise with ‘Apex’
Four years after the release of Beast, it might be logical for Icelandic genre filmmaker Baltasar Kormákur to eventually direct a film with the title Apex in it. That said, no apex predators are found in this two-hander survival thriller between a hunter and the hunted. Such a simple premise as the one found in Kormákur’s latest should exalt tangible thrills, but there isn’t anything that differentiates this picture from the bevy of titles that follow the same plotline. Of course, it doesn’t need to reinvent the screenwriting wheel, but when you have the bare bones of something genuinely exciting and choose to treat it in the most lethargic way possible, that is a massive problem.
The plot of Apex
Thank God for Charlize Theron, who imbues her heroine, Sasha, with so much intense pain that we feel for her at every turn of this lean-and-mean offering. After losing her husband Tommy (Eric Bana) in a harrowing accident near the top of the Troll Court in Norway, Sasha vowed never to climb mountains again. Months later, Sasha is on a solo kayaking trip to the Grand Isle Narrows in the Australian outback when she meets Ben (Taron Egerton), a friendly jerky-maker who lives in a secluded cabin within the confines of Wandarra National Park.
As they get to know one another, Sasha begins to realize that Ben might not be what he seems, and that someone has been stalking the explorer ever since her arrival in Australia. It’s at that point where he reveals to have ulterior motives and attempts to kill Sasha. She frees herself from his grip, only for him to begin chasing her across the wilderness. Again, this is a simple and very effective premise. Two characters populate the picture and careen around a vast environment full of physical and mental challenges.
Limited thrills, despite good performances from Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton
The thrill of watching a film like Apex is akin to the simple pleasures of life: we know what to expect, but enjoy the ride nonetheless. We should feel terrified at the sight of Sasha running as far away from Ben as possible, with the knowledge that this killer is in his playground and knows how to set traps to find her. Even when Egerton is not present on screen, the audience should feel him at every turn, recognizing that Sasha can’t fully rest until she has reached a safe location.
And while Kormákur’s camerawork (courtesy of cinematographer Lawrence Sher) is far more playful and expressive than his previous pictures, one can’t feel the mounting tension seeping across Apex’s brief runtime. Some action definitely hits hard, and Sher’s camera undoubtedly tries to put us into Sasha’s shoes (occasionally, to great effect), but there’s a good chunk of the film’s second half that feels painfully repetitive and unengaging.
Does it hamper our appreciation of the film that we know essentially what’s about to happen as soon as screenwriter Jeremy Robbins attempts to interiorize Sasha by paralleling her reckless decisions with the situation she’s facing now? A little, but such survival thrillers usually don’t thrive on screenwriting innovation. It’s all about how the set pieces are crafted and, most importantly, how the characters evolve.
The kayaking stuff is exhilarating and often kinetic, but everything else feels oddly paced. The climax, which is supposed to release a good hour of mounting tension, involves Sasha outsmarting Ben at rock climbing. It could’ve worked, but the treatment feels so lazy that its final moments are unimpressively dull, despite the most gratuitously excessive bout of violence Kormákur stages on the screen.
One fails to understand exactly what drives Sasha to continue exploring the great outdoors, especially after her husband’s passing. In fact, it doesn’t seem to fully affect her at all! Why show us this long opening scene—with an underused Eric Bana, mind you—if it won’t fully respond to Apex’s present-day story? It seems to serve as an excuse for Kormákur to craft a set piece in dialogue with his 2015 film, Everest (which offered tangible, visceral thrills) rather than feed into the character as she’s again faced with a life-or-death situation, though in an entirely different context.
Again, thank God for Charlize Theron, whose performance is so good that one wishes this were an entire one-woman show in which Sasha faces off against the elements rather than a manic serial killer. That said, Egerton also impresses by making his character feel more three-dimensional in nature than the typical cartoonish antagonist who simply wants to kill someone “just because…” There’s actual texture in his treatment of Ben, which he surprisingly opens up near the movie’s denouement, even though his backstory is quite sickening and hammers home how genuinely unwell he is.
Final thoughts on Apex
It’s just a shame that the movie fizzles out relatively quickly, and its attempts to reinvigorate the proceedings desperately fail. One hoped this would have some substance, since Kormákur took a break in Hollywood to find inspiration through independent filmmaking with 2024’s Touch. That inspiration didn’t last long, because Apex is just as dull as 2022’s Beast, perhaps even duller since we don’t have the full attention of a cinema screen enveloping us in the picture.
After Sam Raimi brought some life into the survival thriller with the pleasurably surprising Send Help, one hoped Kormákur would continue this momentum with Apex. Sadly, the momentum was short-lived. Here’s hoping his next film will be much (much) better than this.
Also check out: Send Help Review: Sam Raimi Does It Again
