Beast (2022) Review

 "It's the law of the jungle.  It's the only law that matters."
-Martin Battles



When his entire pride is killed by poachers, a lone lion seeks revenge against any human it encounters.  Unfortunately, Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his daughters are visiting his late wife's home village and they cross path with the murderous lion.  Now Nate has to fight to survive and keep his daughters safe.


 What Works:

I'm a big fan of survival/horror movies.  Some people may call this a thriller, but it absolutely has the elements of a horror movie.  I like watching a small group of characters try to survive in a remote location.  It's probably my favorite genre of movie.  Beast fits this description perfectly.  It's a movie right up my alley and of course I enjoyed it.

My favorite part of the movie is the cinematography.  I was really impressed with the amount of long takes and fluid camera movement.  The unbroken shots really make you feel like you are in the scene with the characters.  And the constant camera movement creates tension because it feels like the lion could attack at any moment.  They don't do many jump scares, but they anticipation is still pretty brutal.  It's very impressive work from cinematographer Philippe Rousselot. 

I also really liked the performances of Elba and Sharlto Copley.  Both of them do a great job making the situation feel dire and I especially like an early scene of the two of them getting really drunk.

Finally, the lion itself looks fantastic.  The CGI is excellent throughout, especially with the aforementioned long takes.  The final battle between Elba and the lion looks especially amazing.  It's some really masterful work.


What Sucks:

In survival/horror movies, you usually expect at least one really bad decision to happen in order to set up the story.  I can usually forgive the one if the characters are competent for the rest of the movie.  That really isn't the case all that often with Beast.  There are a lot of really stupid decisions here from the entire cast of characters.  Some are much worse than others, but I was definitely irritated a few times.

Finally, both of Nate's daughters are very annoying, especially Mer (Iyana Halley).  They both make some pretty terrible decisions, but they also don't stop talking.  I get that they are children, but I generally find children to annoying, especially if they talk too much.  If we could have more survival/horror films without children, that would be great.


Verdict:

Beast is a fun survival/horror movie with great perfromances from Elba and Copley, awesome CGI, and excellent cinematography.  Some of the characters were annoying and stupid, but that didn't hamper my enjoyment of the film very much.  It's still definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good 

 

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