Beast

A stereotypical survival drama that gets plus points for the lion, but otherwise doesn't score that much. The visuals of the predator are not impressive, the suspense didn't work for me, and there's a drastic lack of a strong enough background for the main character to make the viewer care about him at least in part. It doesn't offend, but I was expecting a more polished ride with more genre fun or innovation. (2022-09-26)

A mad Scar leaving more people bleeding in Africa than a hemorrhagic fever vs. an incomplete city family on much-needed team building. Baltasar Kormákur tries to elevate a run-of-the-mill animal attack B-movie with long shots and fairly decent CGI, borrowing bits here and there (the visions of the widower à la The Grey, Attenborough’s park), but his futile battle with the dumb script strips away the technical finesse down to the bone. In the finale, which resembled The Lion King crossed with a duel between Elba’s Harmonica and a lion-maned Frank, all I was missing was for Rafiki to turn around, bend over, and show us what we’re supposed to think. (2022-11-24)

Beast offers a different world and a different predator alongside the older The Shallows and Crawl, while being on par in quality with the aforementioned animal horror films. The visuals of the lions are really impressive, as are the shots of the daytime and nighttime wilderness. While the viewer has a hunch from the beginning how the film will eventually end, the film still managed to keep me in suspense almost the entire time. What bothered me about Beast was the behavior and (stupid) decisions of some of the characters. (2022-08-20)

The suspense sets in early and effectively and the survival-drama potential is solid until the end. Good work with the setting and digital animals, with a likable acknowledgement of Jurassic Park’s inspiration (endangered characters trapped in a jeep). And Idris Elba fits in perfectly. The “broken family comes together in an extreme situation” ultra-cliché doesn’t matter; after all, this is a genre flick that solidly entertains with suspense in an exotic setting. But there are some occasional bits of nonsense. There aren’t many of them, but this high-powered and technically high-quality adventure would be better off without them. (2022-09-29)

Experienced Icelandic director Baltasar Kormákur delivers a very successful and high quality genre film with a simple premise but all the more effective execution. It doesn't aim too high and it works well in pretty much everything it tries to do. If you enjoyed Aja's Crawl a few years ago, Beast might be something for you. And there aren't that many quality horror films about killer beasts. (2022-08-10)