Beast (2022)

A recently widowed man and his two teenage daughters travel to a game reserve in South Africa. However, their journey of healing soon turns into a fight for survival when a bloodthirsty lion starts to stalk them.

When you hear of the concept of Idris Elba facing off against a bloodthirsty lion, you think to yourself, “This should be an easy moneymaker.” Well, to start off, I have to give props to the filmmaking. Every now and then we will get a one shot take following the characters around in the African environment, although there may have been a few clever edits. Nonetheless, putting us in the place of the characters is a nice way to add to the experience. The special effects of the lion can be convincing at times and it’s design is admittedly intimidating. Idris does a decent enough job at playing a father trying to fix a distant and rocky relationship between him and his daughters and his old friend played by Sharlto Copley has a presence that is enjoyable enough to watch.

Now, after watching this film, I have to admit it was a bit of a let down. The biggest contributor of this I believe was the runtime. It doesn’t allow the family drama to hit as hard as it should and it makes for a rushed third act that felt almost anticlimactic. Another way for it to be fixed would’ve been more efficient screenwriting. You have characters making dumb decisions for situations to arise and being stuck in one place for a good portion of the movie can get a bit tiresome. In the end, Beast was a good concept that wasn’t as great as it should’ve been, but I’d say it’s competent enough for me to recommend seeing it for yourself at least.

Not as bad as all the ratings and reviews it’s receiving today. “Beast” is very well directed with long takes and amazing camera work. The introduction to the lions was great and the CGI for him for the first half of the film was amazing. The cinematography as well is phenomenal. It’s a beautiful looking movie. The cast do good, the story is investing, the scenes with the line are suspenseful but nothing crazy like say scary or anything, and the pacing was really good. As for flaws, the story had this emotional weight to it that I didn’t feel at all. It felt forced and unneeded since it added nothing to the story.

The CGI in the second half of the film is really bad. This is because of the night sequences so lighting was an issue but also a lot of zoom ins happen with the lion that made the CGI look terrible. Also, the final act or battle involving Idris Elba and the lion was really bad. You’ll know what I mean once you see it or if you already have seen it. There’s also plenty of WTF moments in the movie that annoyed me and was laughable because of how stupid it was. Still, this movie could’ve been worse and I’m glad it wasn’t what I was worried it would turn out to be. It’s a fun movie to close off summer and definitely watchable!