When I first read the description of this movie, I wanted Charlize Theron to be the hunter. A “most dangerous game” variant where a guy is hunting a girl through the woods? Isn’t this basically every ‘final girl’ movie ever made? Why can’t Charlize be the huntress and Taron Egerton be the final boy? I mean, a few years ago we did get Hilary Swank as a most dangerous villain, but she was hunting Betty Gilpin, another woman. Isn’t hollywood supposed to be empowering women, not chasing them willy nilly into the forest?
——
The movie really begins during a scene where Sasha (Charlize) encounters Ben (Taron) in the woods. She doesn’t know him. He seems friendly and wants to help her out. While watching this scene unfold, I realized why Charlize couldn’t be the hunter. If you came into this movie having no idea what it was about (it’s too late for *you* to do this, so we’re talking a theoretical person), and you watched Sasha talk to this friendly bloke... You would start to be afraid for her. As the scene went on, even as Ben remained helpful and friendly, that fear would start to amplify. Because Sasha is a woman and Ben is a man. Sasha is a tall, fit, imposing woman, and Ben is a pretty small dude. This is FURIOSA squaring off against Elton John. But it doesn’t matter, you’re afraid for Furiosa.
It’s because of the shroud that covers all interactions between men and women: Men are scary. Women are not.
Now, if Charlize was dressed like Furiosa and had a metal arm... Then maybe that feeling of dread would lessen. But that’s how far you have to go. That’s how culturally ingrained this archetype of the terrifying man is. If you wanted to make an action thriller, then at the end of scene Sasha could pull out a crossbow, tell Ben he’s got a five minute head start, and you’re off to the races. But, if you want what ‘Apex’ is, a horror movie, you can’t. You’re spending the entire scene between Sasha and Ben being afraid on her behalf. If she pulls out the crossbow, the movie is asking you to suddenly switch allegiances. To be afraid for ‘him’. It’s a huge ask, and it’s not going to happen for a lot of the audience. But if *he* pulls out the crossbow, it’s the gong striking at the end of a crescendo of fear that’s been building up. Having Ben be the hunter is the only way the movie remains scary.
And that sucks.
I hate it. I hate that, if a woman and man meet each other for the first time, her default state might very possibly be fear, and his won’t. I’m not saying every woman is afraid of every strange man... Of course that’s not true. What I am saying... Is we have *thousands of years* of men physically brutalizing and subjugating women. Evolutionary biology TELLS HER to be afraid of strange men. Rightly so. For the women that don’t have that fear or can easily put it to the side, that’s awesome. For those that can’t... I genuinely empathize with them, even if I can’t fully understand what they’re going through because I haven’t been through it myself.
What’s worse, I don’t know what to do about it either. I could say ‘respect women’, but tons of men do respect women and would never dream of assaulting them, but that doesn’t really reduce the fear. In fact... If Thanos were to use the infinity gauntlet to make all men treat all women with kindness and respect, it’s not going to fix the fear. There’s too much history there. It runs too deep. Therefore, while I did experience some ‘horror’ while watching Apex, a lot of time I actually just felt sadness at the reality that made it possible.
While we might not be able to solve women’s fears... We can give them kayaks. Honestly, I can’t think of a better way to mitigate that male centric dread than to get in a kayak and hit those rapids. It’s a killer workout that hits all the major muscle groups. In fact, take a look at Sasha if you don’t believe me. Plus, if there’s something even scarier than men, it’s mother nature. After going down that river at 924292 mph facing a strange man might not be casual, but it’ll sure be easier! Kayaks are also inexpensive, and easy to transport!
While I might have felt scared on Sasha’s behalf when she was with Ben, when she was on the river what I felt was awe. Sasha ends up in the drink *a lot* in this movie, sometimes with a kayak and sometimes without, and the action is almost always incredible. Some of the best river rapids work I’ve seen in a film. She flips the kayak upside down, is in the upside down kayak underwater for a time, and then just flips it back over and keeps going down the rapids? Is this something kayakers actually do for fun? If so, mad props because it looks amazing. The river action scenes are the best thing about the movie, and I would probably say they’re worth the price of admission by themselves.
What doesn’t work so well... Is the Ben/Sasha dynamic. I am a huge fan of both Charlize and Taron... But their chemistry is zilch. There’s an extended sequence where the film has them conversing and tries to build this kind of clarice/hannibal vibe, and it just doesn’t work with Ben and Sasha. The dialogue isn’t there, and neither is the chemistry. I would just as soon skipped those scenes and gone back to river or the woods. There’s very few things a critic can say about a movie that are as boring or uninformative as “The cinematography is really beautiful”... But in “Apex”... The Austrailian outback cinematography is actually really beautiful.
Whether you’re on the river or on dry land, I would urge men (and women) to be nice to strangers. You might not solve a paradigm of fear, but you might make somebody’s day a little better. That’s my advice: Be nice. Knowing is half the battle!
7/10