OTT Review: Apex: Lost in the Wild

Apex | Director: Baltasar Kormákur | Cast: Charlize Theron, Taron Egerton | English | Netflix

 Some of the female actors tend to go downhill pretty quickly after winning an Oscar. Halle Berry comes to mind. On current evidence, Charlize Theron looks as if she is heading the same way. Apex is the kind of survival thriller that seems to have been written by a highly incompetent writers’ room. When Theron quickly loses the love of her life in the opening moments of the film, you know where the film is headed. Either a bout of self-destructive behaviour or a road trip into the sunset. Theron’s charac­ter, Sasha, chooses the latter only to encounter a two-legged monster in the Great Australian wild. This is a familiar predator, the kind who preys on fear and danger.

But why Taron Egerton, the slight Welsh actor, would pick on Theron is a mystery. She dwarfs him physically and emotionally and it is clear any contest with her is going to end badly for him. But hey, then we wouldn’t have a formulaic film to feed the Netflix entertainment machine, and we wouldn’t have the plea­sure of watching Theron taking on the elements, climb­ing mountains, kayaking in difficult waters, and running through dense forests, her hair ruffled, her body taut, and her face looking dewy fresh despite the circumstances. This is Man vs Wild the studio version. Next time, perhaps Theron would like to pit herself against Bear Grylls.