A Movie Review By Anthony Ritter
Idris Elba stars in Beast, as it roars into theaters this weekend. This thriller is about a father and his teenage daughters as they take a trip to the African savannah, to visit the village of the girls’ late mother. While exploring the wildlife reservation, they find themselves fighting to survive, as a rogue lion begins killing any human that crosses its path.
What follows is The Good, The Bad, and The Spoilers of Beast.
The Good
Idris Elba is truly an amazing actor. I feel any role that he is put in, he is able to embrace and portray it with stunning believability. In Beast, Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a father who fights to reestablish a connection with his daughters while processing the loss of his wife. Elba does an amazing job showing just how much the emotional strain of losing a partner can have on the other relationships in his life. His willingness to sacrifice everything to protect his daughters is understood and completely relatable to any parent who would do the same for their kids.
Beast is a Thriller. Despite all the things I did not like about this movie, which I will get to in a moment, this movie defiantly describes itself well as an edge of the seat thriller. Audiences are constantly leaning forward, trying to spot where the lion will appear next. Only to jump when the lion catapults itself onto the screen.
The Bad
Believability was really my biggest issue with the movie. While Elba is very convincing as the character he is playing, the decisions that character repeatedly makes throughout the film have me questioning the writing. If you see a lion kill/maim someone right in front of you, would you get out of the car 30 seconds later to wander and look around? If your best friend says they are badly hurt, being used as bait by a vicious killer lion, and to stay in the car and wait for help, would you go looking for them? It is never a good sign when the audience collectively groans multiple times due to the decisions characters make in the movie. This was my experience Tuesday night.
Believing the story behind the rouge lion is actually really easy. Believing that Elba would be able to survive 3 encounters with a massive loin, that has killed multiple armed people, is much harder. It is amazing to watch Elba, knife in hand, fight a lion for about a solid 1-2 minutes. This is something I’m sure any dad would do to protect his daughters. Living though this fight with some scratches after the swift deadliness of this lion had already been established, is not convincing.
My Overall Opinion
Beast is an excellent thriller, that keeps the audience on edge. While I liked this aspect, this one was just not for me. I really struggled with the decision-making of the characters. That being said, I have never been stranded in the middle of the African savannah being hunted by a rouge lion. If you like a good action thriller that you don’t have to think too much about, take the time to give this one a watch. I would recommend waiting for this one to hit a streaming service.
On his blog “GoodBadSpoilers.com”, Anthony Ritter critiques and writes a review on selected movies. Once you see a movie that Ritter has reviewed, visit his blog and share your point of view.
