In what is largely a B-movie idea turned marginally big, the apex of the Netflix film Apex is not lead actress Charlize Theron but Taron Egerton.

Egerton plays Ben, a local who isn’t really a local, whose friendly façade is quickly overshadowed by his obvious tendency to hunt someone down and ritualistically eat them.

Theron, playing Sacha, had it coming, in my opinion. When the film opens, her adrenaline-junkie tendencies have her climbing — and camping suspended in mid-air — amongst badly CGI-ed Norwegian mountains amid a dangerous snowstorm. Her much saner beau, Tommy (Eric Bana), warns her that their luck might run out. His does.

Barely five months later, she is at it again, driving alone through Australia’s fictional Wandarra National Park. Her silent agenda (she doesn’t speak much) is to traverse the Grand Isle Narrows — a dangerous rapid leading to a secluded stretch of the stream. The park ranger warns her that many people have gone missing. Soon, a couple of hoods, and then Ben, enter the picture. Not one of them bothers hiding their malicious inclinations.

A survival thriller set in the Australian wilderness, Apex delivers one outstanding performance but struggles to rise above familiar genre conventions

However, Sacha is a survivor, and Jeremy Robbins’ screenplay (he wrote The Purge TV series) and Baltasar Kormákur’s direction (Contraband, 2 Guns) make sure you never forget it. Because you are forced to cheer for an uninteresting character, viewer interest in the film fades after it loses momentum around the mid-point.

The bland visual effects, which occur from time to time, also don’t help matters; the opening and the climax are the main culprits in pushing away any semblance of believability.

Theron, always a reliable actress, is merely okay as an unlikeable protagonist who is prone to making bad decisions, but it is Egerton who really turns this ho-hum film into a unique experience. Clearly, he was given a lot of room to play — and play he does. What range and balance!

Egerton was fine in the two Kingsman movies, which relied on James Bond-ish flair to cover their lack of originality (to be fair, Bond has that problem too, so I suppose it comes with the genre). However, his turns in Rocketman — an adaptation of a part of legendary singer Elton John’s life — and the recent Die Hard-esque airport thriller Carry-On (also a Netflix original like Apex) are enough to vouch for the great actor residing within this Royal Academy of the Dramatic Arts graduate.

Egerton could have played the character by the book; instead, he delivers a deeply layered, intricate and calculated performance that holds your attention and the film together single-handedly — even when the narrative slips.

Robbins’ screenplay was featured on The Black List — an industry-wide compilation highlighting the best unproduced scripts circulating through the offices of studio executives and producers. As we’ve seen from the neon-laden, John Wick-ish Kate, The Black List’s titles aren’t always the best representation of the industry’s “best” screenwriting. However, I’ll agree that nine out of ten ideas sound quite good in brief.

Here, the packaging is effective: Kormákur is a capable director, Theron has standing as an action heroine, and the survivalist premise is intriguing, despite being done to death. Yet, the end product hardly sustains itself, even with a brisk 95-minute runtime. It’s not bad, but neither is it good, unless — you guessed it — one factors in Egerton.

Streaming on Netflix, Apex is rated 18+ for life-threatening situations and a cannibal with sharp, jagged teeth

The writer is Icon’s primary film reviewer

Published in Dawn, ICON, May 24th, 2026