Charlize Theron Nearly Saves ‘Apex’ from Being Unwatchable

(SeaPRwire) –   A core issue with films where women overcome men who have brutalized them is that you have to sit through the women being victimized first. That’s exactly the problem with Baltasar Kormákur’s Apex, in which Charlize Theron stars as a confident, seasoned adventurer who ends up terrorized in the Australian outback by a deranged man, played by Taron Egerton. The movie delivers thrills occasionally, but more often than not, it’s just sadistically uncomfortable. But at minimum, Theron softens many of the story’s flaws, because she can ease problems in pretty much any film. Even when you want to glance away from shots of rusty meat hooks and bloated corpses, you simply can’t pull your eyes off Theron.

Theron’s character Sasha is the kind of woman you just know can take care of herself. In the movie’s opening scene, she displays incredible physical strength and persistence as she climbs the imposing, snow-dusted Norwegian cliff face called Troll Wall. Is there anyone she couldn’t beat? But that early sequence also reveals the tragedy that left a mark on Sasha: Her partner in both life and all kinds of thrill-seeking adventures, Tommy (Eric Bana), doesn’t survive the climb, and Sasha feels partially responsible for his death. Earlier, huddled in their small tent, he shared that he wanted to slow their pace; he’d grown tired of keeping up with her endless search for the ultimate adrenaline rush. In Sasha’s gaze, where her spark feels both bright and dimmed, you can see she fears he’s grown tired not just of their shared adventures, but of her. And all of this unfolds before the movie’s opening credits even roll. Theron is an incredibly efficient performer. She can lay out a character’s core traits in just a few seconds, which is likely why she excels so much at playing action heroes. She never has a moment to waste.

Before long, Sasha pulls into a remote Australian gas station, ready for her next challenge: a solo kayaking trip in a vast, sprawling national park. Still, there’s something somber and closed off about her; it’s clear she hasn’t gotten past Tommy’s death. A park ranger warns her against traveling alone, pointing ominously to a board covered in photos of missing people, supposedly killed by nature’s fury—venomous snakes, or at the very least, confusing, maze-like trails. But Sasha stays unshaken. Not even a group of leering hunters, stopping for last-minute gas and supplies while eyeing her crudely, can throw her off. A local man who makes and sells beef jerky, dropping off his latest batch at the station, sees the men’s behavior and later apologizes to her for not speaking up. Sasha brushes it off—she doesn’t need any man’s protection—though later, since he seems friendly enough, she asks him for directions. He describes a special, hidden, enticingly remote spot and tells her exactly how to reach it. Alarm bells don’t go off for her, even though they’re probably ringing loudly for you.

The rest of Apex pulls a little from The Most Dangerous Game, a little from Silence of the Lambs, and a little from Deliverance, though it never captures the best qualities of any of those films. Theron’s Sasha is the prey; her attacker, Egerton’s Ben, is a lunatic with unresolved mommy issues. She nearly outruns him, but not quite. Yet in the end she can outsmart him, and Apex relies on our confidence that she will come out on top.

Even so, do we really want to watch her tied up and threatened, or howling in pain as a metal trap’s jaws snap shut around her leg? Kormákur is a versatile director: he’s made standard action thrillers like Everest and Beast, though films like 2024’s Touch prove he’s not unaffected by the pull of romantic melodrama. Apex is competently made, and Theron is such a confident performer that she doesn’t let the audience dwell too long on Sasha’s suffering. But Apex fails to work either as a source of dark thrills or a showcase of empowering feminist action. Ben’s twisted misogynistic cruelty is draining from the very start. It’s a miracle he doesn’t get taken out in the first half by the deafening force of our collective eye-rolling. Instead, we have to wait for Theron to finish the job, and even in her capable hands, it stretches on far too long.