credit: Beast
The act of creating realism in a movie is typically in short supply when it comes to dangerous animals that live in the wild and are essentially misunderstood by a lot of people. It can definitely be said that there are a great number of dangers in the African wilds, especially for those who don’t understand how to survive and how to react to wild animals and their environment. Beast is one of those movies that makes it possible for many people to widen their eyes and state that, of course, nature is scary, of course, it can kill you, and of course, they want to watch another movie that reiterates this point.
The danger of movies like this is kind of obvious since it’s possible to make a lot of people believe that lions are in fact very dangerous creatures who will take it upon themselves to take up a vendetta against those who have wronged them. That’s kind of what happens since when the movie opens, it shows a group of poachers who are actively seeking a pride of lions that are being targeted for their hides, teeth, meat, etc. When the male of the pride escapes after mauling several of the poachers, it becomes a case of lion vs. humans, without distinction between poachers and non-poachers.
credit: Beast
The first thing that people need to be reminded of is that this isn’t reality.
Lions don’t act like this. People need to know that, if nothing else. The facts that have been laid down are that lions are dangerous to humans if humans decide to act foolish around them and not take care when they’re in the wrong territory. But as far as this movie goes, a lion will not typically expend the energy that’s required to hunt down prey that has little to nothing to do with their everyday life.
When it comes to killing prey that they don’t eat, lions don’t typically do this either, even if there are events that have taken place in history that would refute this fact. The lions of Tsavo are one of those instances in which lions were seen to kill and eat more than is considered normal. The Ghost and the Darkness was about a pair of lions that existed in a much different and very abnormal situation however, not like this.
To its credit, the movie does show a few positive moments.
Apart from being kind of a misguided story about killer lions, the movie does offer up a nice story about a father that is looking to reconnect with his daughters after the death of their mother. This type of story, when paired with the horror of being stalked by a killer animal, can and sometimes does come off as unbearably cheesy, not to mention sappy as hell and hard to watch.
There were moments in the movie that felt a little overplayed and kind of overdone, but the general story that was allowed to play out, the reason for coming to Africa, in fact, was rather touching since it had to do with the fact that the girls were returning to their mother’s homeland, and their father was coming to terms with the fact that he loved his wife, but had to get past what had happened to split them apart.
credit: Beast
The action is interesting, to be honest.
If one can allow the idea that lions don’t behave like this, then it’s very easy to get into the action and understand that while some of the CGI wasn’t quite that great, the story was kind of fun considering that it was a thrill ride that didn’t end until nature finally took care of itself in a very decisive manner.
What was supposed to be a pleasing trip to Africa between a father and his two daughters ended up being a horror-filled adrenaline ride that forced them to walk a razor’s edge when it came to surviving each hour until they were rescued. Some of the action might have been a little over the top, but by the end, it came together nicely in order to create a movie that was easy to watch.
When all is said and done, it’s a monster movie that could have used a different monster.
The monster could have been something supernatural or extraterrestrial, and the feeling would have been about the same when it came to the overall story. But in all fairness, thinking of an animal like a lion getting out of control like this is terrifying and does make for an interesting tale. As far as the responsibility of it, the movie is one of those that might have done better by making it clear to the audience that this is a work of fiction and that lions are not known to be this aggressive.
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