A father and his two teenage daughters find themselves hunted by a massive rogue lion intent on proving that the Savanna has but one apex predator.
Chuck says:
Yes, there are a couple moments in Baltasar Kormakur’s “Beast” that are a little hard to swallow. But scenes that stretch the bounds of credibility are part and parcel of any film that features an animal treating people as if they were entrees. I mean, as good as “Jaws” is, does it really make much sense? The tension and anticipation Steven Spielberg creates in the 1975 classic sweeps us away so completely that logic winds up being an afterthought.
To be sure, Kormakur is no Spielberg and “Beast” is no “Jaws.” Yet, the movie delivers enough thrills to elicit a yelp or two from the audience – at least from me – and while you may not be on the edge of your seat throughout, tedium will likely not set in. Outstanding special effects, solid performances and a convincing familial conflict all contribute to making this briskly told adventure worth taking in.
The reason for the trip Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two daughters Mer and Norah (Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries) undertake to Africa is two-fold. One is to pay homage to Amahle (Naledi Mogadime)-Nate’s wife and the girls’ mother – who has recently succumbed to cancer. The trio sets out to visit the village of her birth, Nate hoping that he’ll be able to reconnect with his girls who have become distant since their parents’ divorce. Looking up an old friend, Martin (Sharlto Copley), who is now a game warden at a vast reserve, they set out on safari to take in the wildlife and visit their mother’s old haunts.
But as often happens with best laid plans, things go awry when they visit a local village and find many of the inhabitants slain by a rogue lion. Pressing on for help, Martin stops to help a native they find in the road, a mistake that leads to his being mauled by the seemingly omnipresent predator and isolated from his guests who are huddling in their utility vehicle, which is soon out of commission.
Narrative stagnation is the enemy here as it seems so much of the action will take place in one location. However, screenwriter Ryan Engle refuses to let this story get bogged down, cutting between Nate and his two daughters and the wounded Martin, the beast terrorizing one and then the other.
So much depends on the believability of the lion and the attacks he makes, and the special effects prove astonishing. Quickly executed and brutally rendered, Kormakur seemingly puts the viewer in peril along with the on-screen victims, choosing to frame the attacks tightly while having them occur in claustrophobic quarters. A sequence in which the predator pounces on top of the vehicle and nearly drags one of the girls out of a broken window is topped only by a scene in which Nate is trapped under the car, the lion desperately charging and swiping at him, the beast’s fangs coming far too close for comfort. The illusion is captivating and at times all too real as there’s never a moment when the creature is anything less than convincing.
While the filmmaker stages these moments with precision, his tendency to mimic Michael Bay with his constantly moving, revolving hand-held shots create nausea rather than tension. And the film’s third act does require a suspension of belief that’s hard to justify. Be that as it may, “Beast’s” function is to excite and it does that more times than not, delivering nicely polished B-movie thrills with precision and flair. No, it won’t be remembered as a classic but it’s a cut above similar fare and that’s no easy feat.
3 Stars
