Beast

I’m personally a huge fan of uncle Idris but he’s just isn’t our next Bond. He can’t be. Uncs is tired and needs rest. He can feature in the films definitely but to hold out for another 7/8 movies over a 10 year period? It’s a no from me. Now lets talk about Beast…

I love a “monster” movie. The idea of a big bad creature stalking folk and picking them off one by one? Thats my thing! The concept of this film, I like it, the delivery? Not so much. Universal have taken some plunges with some franchises and seem to be struggling with their deliveries.

Beast has various plots that perhaps individually could have held up but collectively were terrible. They just didn’t gel well together. The movie pulls heavy on the heart strings using the loss of Idris’ wife and how its affecting him and his daughters. There’s a deep story here which I can relate to emphasising on loss and grief and how it affects all of us in different ways. Everyone using their own coping mechanisms to deal with it. In the midst of this the relationship between Idris and his daughters is fractured and needs rebuilding, hence the trip to Africa. The parental struggles ensue. The struggle here is how they force this plot point into the story of surviving a rogue lion who has his own motives which just so happen to mimic the characters. The lion also lost family and is dealing with his grief by picking off humans in revenge. In all honesty, you watch the film and I want to see justice for lion… Yes you heard right, stay with me here…

There is some amazing camera action here. Very well utilised to its paramount potential to heighten the tension and suspense in the lion stalking scenes. Definitely had me on my toes. The CGI however is a let down. They were not shy with it at all. Heavy use but still poor production. Some attempts at using real lions in scenes I feel would have benefited the movie, to keep it a bit more grounded.

Towards the latter stages of the movie it starts to get silly and quite frankly unbearable. The acting chops drops massively. There are crying scenes that just weren’t performed very well. Our new actresses are young and have time to improve. Spending time with uncle Idris I’m sure will help with that. The direction of the story then starts to break down and realism goes right out the window so in comes truck loads of plot armour which lowered the quality of an already struggling movie. Then the movie just goes full Fast and Furious when they show uncle Idris doing up hand to hand combat with a fully grown Simba… I shutdown from there.

Will Packer does manage to insert a cute little twist with the climatic scene which brings everything full circle and I enjoyed it. Overall the idea of the movie I loved, the execution not so much. Felt like an overload with all the sob stories, poor CGI and poor acting. If you’re a fan of monster movies like me, go for it… if you’re just a fan of uncle Idris, go for it… you will still be disappointed but otherwise, definitely skip this one.

Did you enjoy this one? What did you like most? Beast 2.. yay or nay? Were you also rooting for the lion to win? React and comment below!