THE FOLLOWING REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS OF THE DISCUSSED FILM. READERS DISCRETION IS ADVISED.
It's sad to say that a safe adventure with the family is rare nowadays.
PLOT
Beast follows Doctor Nate Samuels taking his teenage daughters, Norah and Meredith to the Mopani Reserve in South Africa where he first met his wife. The whole point of the vacation is to rekindle their relationship that became estranged when she passed due to terminal cancer. There, the girls meets Nate's best friend who introduced their parents to each other, Biologist Martin Battles. A day after settling in, he gives them an exclusive tour to explore restricted areas of the reserve. During the tour, they get to many animals including a local lion pride that do not mind Martin's company. They later choose to leave when it is noticed that a female lion is injured. When the group later visits a Tsonga community, they shockingly find the population killed as the result of a male rogue lion. As Nate is unable to save the last Tsonga man breathing, the same lion attacks Martin and causes the Samuels family to retreat. They only find themselves stranded when Meredith accidentally crashes into a tree in an attempt to speed away. When Martin reaches out to them via walkie talkie, he urges them to keep their distance as the lion is using him as bait to lure them out. With the radio out of range to contact others for help, Martin assembles a tranquilizer rifle to defend his family. When the lion returns to the car, He is able to distract the animal long enough for Norah to stab it with a tranquilizer dart and Meredith to retrieve Martin. By night fall, Martin shares with Nate that the lion has turned rogue as a result of poachers wiping out its pride. Ironically, that same group of poachers finds the group as they intend to finish what they started. They initially agree to take them all to the village in exchange for payment, but instead hold them at gunpoint when recognizing Martin as an anti-poacher. Before they could harm the group of protagonists, the rogue lion returns to scatter them and kill a majority of them. When Nate goes to retrieve the car keys from a poacher, Martin sacrifices himself to give the girls a chance to escape. He allows the car to fall into a ravine and sets off an explosion that takes his life, but only burns the lion severely. As the girls escaped, Meredith received a deep laceration on her side. When Martin returns to his daughters with the keys, they take cover at an abandoned schoolhouse the poachers used as a base. There, Nate has enough time to treat his daughter's wound. However, the lion followed them and he chooses to protect his children furthermore by locking them in another room as he intends to subdue it. He lures it into the territory of the same pride Martin raised and long after getting mauled by the rogue, the pride patriarchs intervene and put the beast out of its misery. Just as this happens, a Mopani worker finds Nate and takes him to a hospital. When he wakes up during recovery, he reunites with his daughters and tells them how much he loves them. The film ends with the newly united family taking a picture together near a tree that was once the favorite of their late matriarch.
THOUGHTS
It is indeed a scary experience humans confront nature with minimal advantages and Director Baltasar Kormákur reminded viewers just that with this film. He and Writer Ryan Eagle were able to craft an intense story of survival. It is a simple narrative, yet important to discuss in every given chance because surviving helps us live another day. We may not always fight for it, but when we do, there is no argument that we earn it. In this case, survival is important because it can give you the chance to rebuild yourself as a person and make you closer to the people you love. As we follow the shoes of Nate Samuels, it's very clear of a message. Portrayed by the always great Idris Elba, we see a guy that is filled with such mixed emotions that make him uncertain what to do next to be there for his family. He has his own set of guilt due to breaking up with his wife before her diagnosis. Had he known what would happen, he would've tried harder to make things work. Now, all the love he had left for her must be passed to his daughters as they need him more than ever. When we see the pair of Iyana Halley's Meredith and Leah Jeffries' Norah, they are so unsure how to feel with such loss as part of their teenage angst. As Norah puts effort to accept it, Meredith struggled to understand that no one is to be blamed for what happened. When terror came their way, everyone in the Samuels family went from broken to healed and fully realized that focusing the future is more important than being consumed by the past. Although Nate couldn't guarantee his chances, he proved to be the loving dad he was from the start when confronting the lion on his own, before having fate handle the rest of the situation. I also loved Sharlito Copley as Martin who protected the family until the end with all his knowledge and willpower. He was a guy that lived with the mind set that innocent creatures do not deserve harm, to give love first before anything else. He applied that for animals as much as he did for humans. He was a father to the lion pride the way Nate was to his daughters and that proved how big of a heart he had from the start. As their adventure took turns that shouldn't have been taken, it became a bummer when he died, but it wasn't in vein as the Samuels' were able to live longer lives. Of course we're rooting for these people because they had a real threat that came their way vice versa. Like Crawl, you're making a safe experience on set when computerizing predators. In this modern era of filmmaking, it has been a beneficial scenario as they regularly pay off. In each given scene, the lions felt realistic enough to be reminded how much of a threat they can be. This was definitely proven so whenever the focus was on the vile rogue. That animal was so terrifying for being relentless throughout and that is what happens when one chooses to be superior over a dangerous creature. When you make it have nothing to lose, you create something with no holds barred. Any living thing that acts like such will always remain to be the most dangerous to roam this planet. Of course lions are dangerous animals, but seeing the pride proves they don't always have to be. They can be majestic when left alone and it's a shame they are always in environments where that is not the case. The pride may or may not have recognized Nate, but they know what it's like to protect family and that is all it took to intervene. With such an unprotected savior, I hope the Samuels' enjoy their newly second chance of happiness. You know this was better than I expected, but I still found a few issues that bothered me as I watched it. They definitely had a good setup for showing how the villainous lion goes rogue, but I was so annoyed on how one of the poachers forgets about the trap that got reset. It makes sense that he was scared, but he was so unaware of his surroundings, it made no sense for him to be there if he can't do that. I laughed at the guy for being gullible before the lion started scaring the crap out of me. It's easy to set up tension in modern movies when wi-fi is unavailable, but how come Nate didn't tell the kids that before they got to South Africa? That would've prepared them for the activities they could've done before things went awry. That same tension works the characters are briefly apart from each other, but boy was I irritated when Meredith acted like a total hypocrite towards Norah. She tells her not to wander off when that is exactly what they did to the only adults that protect them. It gets weirder when we don't even see how Meredith loses her. The area had no wifi, so she had no legit excuse to be distracted. And how exactly did Martin move fast enough to get to the other car? He was pretty banged up before he died and he appeared heavy for the girls to carry, so I wish there was clarification on if the guy had some adrenaline in him before he met his end. I then wonder how come the lion didn't smell Nate when he was near? These animals are known to have a well developed scent, so it's crazy that he missed him. Also, why did Meredith allow Norah to honk? This may have helped their dad, but this would lead to Martin's demise. Had they had a flare, that would've given him some more time. I even wonder how come no one rolled up the window when they swapped cars? I'm sure they could've done it without the key. And lastly, I like that Nate tried to defend himself against the lion, but he is very to survive the mauling since his wounds looked much worse than Martin's. The fact that he's still walking is a miracle. Other than that, I still dig the movie for what it is. In short, Beast is a solid thriller film in which I recommend to those who enjoy being on the edge of their seat.
Comentarios