For most of its brisk 93-minute running time, the Samuels tussle with the animal in a game of (big) cat and mouse. There’s the backdrop of animal treatment, but “Beast” is mostly unburdened by larger meaning. When Martin radios that the lion is staring right at him, one of the daughters gamely asks, “Is that a little, um, unnatural?” It doesn’t take long before they stumble across the lion’s victims and find themselves fending off his attacks from the vehicle. The pair had also separated a year before her death, adding to the family friction.īut what’s better at ailing abandonment issues than a man-hunting lion? After reuniting with an old friend, Martin (Sharlto Copley), a vehemently anti-poacher wildlife biologist, the four set out in a jeep to explore the savanna. They’re still reeling from the death of Nate’s wife from cancer, a loss that Mere and Norah partly blame on Nate, a doctor. They’ve just arrived in South Africa, a trip that Nate hopes will be a healing one for the family. This is what Nate Samuels (Elba) and his two daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries), walk into. Having had his family taken from him, he’s like the Liam Neeson of lions. The lion’s ferocity is easy to empathize with, ever to root for. But one - a big one - escapes, and has a preternatural taste for avenging the killings and protecting its territory. But while the lion is CGI, the South African location is genuine, and Kormákur and cinematographer Philippe Rousselot’s long, well-choreographed takes give “Beast” an immersive quality well beyond the genre’s usual slapdash cutting.īut how do you make a lion a diabolical hunter? “Beast,” written by Ryan Engle, opens with poachers mowing down a pride of lions.
COMMANDER ONE WITH NOTHING KILL YOURSELF MOVIE
It’s a movie well engineered as a late-summer diversion - a big cat movie for the dog days of August - that Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur (“Adrift,” “Everest”) insures stays well within the paths of man-against-nature films before it. That’s, at least, the nature of “Beast,” a surprisingly agile and nifty B-movie graced by Idris Elba’s formidable presence, fluid camerawork and tolerable levels of implausibility. Maybe the king of the jungle has always been too regal, too majestic - too heroic - to be lowered to the status of mere summer-movie marauder.īut the circle of life also pertains to movies, and it was probably inevitable that the lion’s time would come.
Sharks, grizzlies, giant snakes and rampaging apes have traditionally been the go-to choices for animal-kingdom antagonists in survival thrillers.
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