Review of BEAST: Avenging Alpha

August 23, 2022

In order to bond and heal with his daughters, Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) went on a trip his two spirited teenage daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Sava Jeffries). He chose to take them to the Mopani Game Reserve in South Africa, located near the village where his late wife (the girls' mother) grew up. Their personal guide was their old family friend Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), the manager of Mopani. 

The night before, a gang of poachers have just killed a whole pride of lions except for its alpha male, which had since gone on a rampage, killing almost all the residents of a local tribe. The next morning, as Martin was driving the Samuels into a remote area of the reserve, they were attacked by this lion. Martin was seriously hurt and their vehicle crashed into a tree. With no phone, internet or radio to call out for help, can the Samuels escape a grisly fate?

The trailer alone practically already told us the whole story. There was a family lost in the wilderness where an enraged predator was on a murderous prowl, and they must rely on their wits to get out of the situation alive. There was a sort of "Jurassic Park" vibe to it, with a rogue lion replacing the T-Rex (probably a reason why one of the girls was seen wearing a "Jurassic Park" t-shirt in one scene, as a sly wink to the inspiration). 

With such a slim plot to build a film around, a major part of this 93-minute film was filler. The entire part where the Samuels girls arrived at the reserve grumbling, about the heat, yet still wearing all those layers of clothes was very annoying. In fact, the elder girl Meredith (call her Mare) was just being one disobedient and disrespectful brat practically the whole time, bringing up old grievances in the most inopportune moments of mortal danger. 

There was no denying though that Idris Elba has a powerful screen presence, and this film did not deserve him. That said, he is probably the only A-list movie star nowadays who would be believable to survive a fistfight with an angry lion. Those crazy scenes of him trying to evade the lion in the dark of night by hiding on a tree branch above it or submerged in water under it (while keeping his radio dry) only worked because it is Elba doing it. 4/10.