Alex Wheeler Movie Ops

You’ve seen this one before. Maybe not this film specifically, but one of its many predecessors, the ones that riff on The Most Dangerous Game and add only the slightest twist. The famous short story about two big game hunters squaring off in a hunt for each other is rife with themes to explore, although many lift only the action over the story’s brainier elements. Most hold to at least two things, though: the setting of the hunt is remote and the hunted have something that ties them together. Whether it goes into the rest, like weighing the ethics of hunting and exploring the thin (some would say non-existent) line between humans and nature, is often what sets apart the memorable takes from the multitude of rote copycats. 

If you aren’t paying close attention, you may think Apex is shooting for the former. It’s got two capable stars in Charlize Theron and Taron Egerton, and its director, Baltasar Kormákur, specializes in survivalist action. But this is a Netflix film, and this is one of the formulas they use to churn out their never-ending supply of original content. Quantity is key for them, with quality only needing to hit the bar of distraction from the world’s horrors while you laze about your home.

On that more modest level, Apex hits its mark. There’s enough backstory to Theron’s Sasha to make you root for her, utilizing a setup of Sasha and her partner, Tommy (Eric Bana), attempting a multi-day rock climb that Tommy doesn’t survive to generate instant sympathy. She comes to this story’s version of an isolated island, the Australian outback, to process the loss in his home country. There she meets Egerton’s Ben, a local who advises her to explore some off-the-beaten-path spots. When he shows up again in the middle of nowhere, he wastes no time laying out the situation. He’s lured her to his hunting grounds, where he expects Sasha to put up a good fight. 

And off the movie goes, careening after the pair as they play cat and mouse. Pretty much the only thing setting this movie apart from the rabble is Kormákur’s visual approach to the rough terrain. He makes the camera lean, mimicking the feeling of looking down the steep drop-offs and straining to keep upright while kayaking through rapids. If this is too much for you, you’ll find out early; The film begins with Sasha peering out from a portaledge, which is a tent climbers attach to sheer rock faces to sleep. The camera follows her gaze straight down. If you can’t handle that kind of thrill, you’ll turn off Apex pretty fast.

None of that cinematography is particularly impressive from a technical standpoint, nor does it give you much beauty to take in. It’s all about the thrills, which are momentarily effective, but they aren’t enough to sustain the film. Hampering engagement is the film’s pace, which takes off quickly enough but doesn’t spend much time on its initial setup. The advertised hunt itself is brief. Instead, the film indulges in a drawn-out series of events that are more nasty than thrilling, which leaves a bad taste in your mouth and makes you question what you’re supposed to be getting from the movie. If you’re there for the action, there isn’t enough of it. If you’re wanting a battle of wills between two capable adventurers, neither character utilizes those skills enough to truly impress. And if you’re wanting some sort of catharsis for Sasha’s traumatic start to the film, well, its solution for that is too obvious to be moving.

Apex would fall far short of even its modest goals if it weren’t for the combo of Theron, Egerton, and Kormákur, who take a story that doesn’t have much behind it and do a hell of a lot of finessing to make it feel more substantial. On paper, Sasha’s trajectory doesn’t really rise to catharsis, but Theron can let emotion linger on her face long enough to make it feel like an emotional journey was had. Egerton doesn’t do as much with his gleefully murderous character, but he throws himself into it so wholeheartedly that the film can do away with any handwringing over whether a person should be killed. No, Apex boils the complexity of The Most Dangerous Game down to its bare bones: A hunter, the hunted, and the brutal traps they set for each other. And that’s enough to keep you on your couch.

Release: streaming now on Netflix
Director: Baltasar Kormákur
Writer: Jeremy Robbins
Cast: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton, Eric Bana