Charlize Theron plays the latest in a long line of movie characters to confront the harsh realities of the Australian landscape, in Netflix’s empty-calorie action drama Apex – only to discover that the real terror lies in the locals. Just ask John Grant from Wake in Fright or the backpackers in Wolf Creek. In Apex, director Baltasar Kormákur depicts neither the land nor the locals in particularly interesting ways, bathing the former in the glossy, sun-lit sheen of a Mountain Dew commercial and serving up a villain barely distinguishable from the usual backwoods bogeymen.
The film opens by firmly establishing its popcorn survival movie credentials, leaning into “pretty but dangerous” imagery as Theron’s protagonist, Sasha, wakes up in a tent dangling off the side of a mountain. Her unfazed reaction tells us that this vertigo-inducing choice of accommodation was intentional. In the tent, next to her, is hubby and fellow adrenaline fiend, Tommy (Eric Bana), though he’s not long for this world, soon to tumble like a ragdoll into the great beyond.
