Man versus beast

NICK EICHER, HOST: Today is Friday, August 26th. Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Nick Eicher.

MYRNA BROWN, HOST: And I’m Myrna Brown. Coming next on The World and Everything in It: man versus beast.

Arts and media editor Collin Garbarino now with a review of a new film pitting a father and his children against the king of the jungle.

AUDIO: [Scary music and lion noises]

COLLIN GARBARINO: Toward the beginning of director Baltasar Kormákur’s new movie Beast we see one of the characters wearing a Jurassic Park t-shirt. It turns out that t-shirt signals what’s to come. A dinosaur isn’t the villain in this movie—it’s a lion—but just like in Jurassic Park, our heroes will spend much of the movie in the wilderness stuck inside a jeep with a vicious predator trying to get at them.

[lion roar]

Martin: It’s all right. You’re okay. He’s just letting you know that he’s there. You see, the way it works with lions is the females do the hunting and the males protect the pride.

Norah: Protect them from what?

Martin: Usually from other lions. Any lion from outside the family that comes into their territory, Kuda and Kowa will leap onto it and start ripping it apart limb from limb or die trying. It’s the law of the jungle.

Humanity’s hubris unleashed the carnage in Jurassic Park, and humans are responsible for creating Beast’s ruthless killer—that lion wants revenge against all humans for the poaching that killed his pride.

Idris Elba plays Dr. Nate Daniels, a recently widowed father of two teenage daughters played by Iyana Halley and Leah Jeffries.

Nate: Are we safe right here?

Guide: Oh, you’re safe, you’re safe. They’ve just finished off last night’s kill.

Nate: Okay, good.

Meredith: That is insane.

[lion roar]

Nate takes his daughters to South Africa to see their mother’s homeland, and the trio head to a game reserve to spend time with “Uncle Martin” played by Sharlto Copley. Martin introduced Nate to his late wife, but now he manages the game reserve. Martin takes Nate and his daughters on a tour of the reserve, but their safari turns into a nightmare when the rogue lion starts hunting them.

Meredith: I’m going to check if I can see Uncle Martin.

Nate: Get back in the car right now.

Meredith: We have to do something or he’s going to die. I’m not…

Nate: Mer, I’ll go. I’ll go!

Norah: Dad! It’s here! It’s here!

Nate: Run, Mer! Get away from the car now! Pass me another. Pass it quick!

Beast is rated R for violence and bloody images. There’s some strong language, but it’s milder than many PG-13 movies. This film doesn’t aspire to be an epic meditation on man versus nature. It has a relatively tight 93-minute running time, and leans into the suspense genre. The first third introduces us to the characters, the second third builds tension as they unknowingly head into danger, and the last third contains the jump scares and action sequences.

Meredith: Do you see it?

Nate: I don’t see it.

Meredith: It’s right there.

Nate: Stop moving the car. Stop rocking.

Norah: Where are you going?

But even in the third act, Kormákur gives the audience time to breathe. For example, he includes a long single-take scene that helps rebuild suspense by letting the camera stalk Nate and his daughters.

Besides the thrills and action, Beast has a surprising amount of pathos. Nate feels guilty because he wasn’t there when his wife died, and he thinks he’s a failure as a father. One of his daughters thinks of him as a failure, too. Despite Elba’s hulking size, he manages to convince us he’s emotionally broken, trying to redeem himself.

Nate: So listen. Ummm… I’m going to try to come to you. Okay? Do you understand that, Martin? I’m going to try to come to you.

Martin: [in pain] Negative, Nate. I’m not alone.

Nate: What?

Martin: He’s staring right at me.

The movie’s not perfect, falling prey to some of the laziness often associated with the horror genre. Technology fails in a most unconvincing manner. Vehicles leave their occupants stranded. People decide to abandon safe places to go poking around in areas with low visibility in which a killer likely lurks.

Meredith: Dad, come back.

Nate: Okay.

Meredith: Okay, I’m going to go outside—

Norah: Wait, Mer!

Meredith: Just stay here!

Norah: Mer, please!

Nate: Hey, man. You up here? Huh? Martin!

[lion roar]

Nate: Get in the car! Get in the car now!

By the end, I found it increasingly difficult to suspend disbelief as Nate absorbs more and more abuse. And Nate isn’t the only one. The poor CGI lion takes more punishment in pursuit of his prey than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator.

And for a scary movie, we see this persistent lion too often for him to be truly frightening—it’s the unseen danger that scares us the most. But it’s always nice to see a father in a movie play the hero and protect his children.

Norah: Dad, get the gun! Dad, grab it! Hurry up!

[lion roar]

So, if you’re a fan of Idris Elba or scary animal movies, Beast might be for you. But in the end, Beast is good, but not great—entertaining, but forgettable.

[lion roar]

I’m Collin Garbarino.

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