Since I have started the Fill-In Filmography, it sure does seem as if there are quite a lot of Jaws-inspired rip-offs. Some giant predator is out killing humans, seemingly an unstoppable and impersonal force of nature until the final moments when someone finally manages to kill it. Granted, most of those movies, even the better ones, came out in the 70s. So, is the new movie Beast, where a killer lion stalks Idris Elba’s character, just such a movie?
Eh, probably, but I heard good buzz about it, and it’s not like Jaws was the first killer animal story.
After a prologue scene sets up why the lion in question goes berserk, and rather effectively at that given how the animal takes out its first victims, the movie cuts to Dr. Nate Samuels (Elba), an American doctor journeying to Africa with his two young daughters, teenage photography enthusiast Mere (IIyana Halley) and emotionally troubled Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries). Nate’s wife, with whom he was estranged, had died recently of cancer, and he’s taking his girls to visit the land where his wife grew up. Meeting up with longtime family friend Martin (Sharlto Copley), the trip is tense as Nate blames himself somewhat for his wife’s death while Mere believes he’s been too distant for the entirety of her mother’s illness. Maybe time spent with Martin, a game warden in South Africa near where Nate’s wife grew up, will provide some healing.
Things take a turn, and rather quickly given the movie runs only a little more than 90 minutes, when the foursome find themselves being hunted by a very smart and very deadly lion. Martin is injured, and Nate and the girls are trapped in a damaged land rover. The lion in question has already amassed quite the kill count, but it isn’t eating any of its kills. It’s just looking to murder every human it can find. Factor in some poachers in the area that are less than friendly, and it looks like Nate will have his hands full dealing with some unresolved family issues, a killer lion, and a wounded friend. Can the Samuels family survive this ordeal?
Look, let’s be honest here: if you want to see Idris Elba fight a lion, that is exactly what you are going to get here. There’s a lion, and Elba does everything he can to stop the enraged animal. The movie cuts right to the point, does what it needs to do, and doesn’t waste time. The lion is a force of nature, and the poachers that pop up make good human villains. Yeah, I wasn’t really surprised by the plot elements here, that Nate and his daughters would probably make up and bond before the movie ends, but this isn’t that sort of movie. It’s a man vs animal movie that doesn’t pretend to be anything other than that, and it does have these great long tracking shots that pop up from time to time.
For all that the movie is basically exactly what it says on the cover, I will say the CGI lion doesn’t always look as convincing as it should, but it was at least as good as Elba’s American accent. I had some fun with this, and director Baltasar Kormákur basically knows what he’s doing behind the camera. For a movie that knows what it is, it’s a fun time at the movies. It won’t make any best-of lists or anything, but it isn’t trying to be that sort of movie. It’s just a man against a lion. If you know that much, and that’s what you want, that’s what you’ll get.
Grade: B
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