Imagine Cujo on the African veldt and you have the gist of Beast, wherein a rogue lion goes on the rampage and threatens a family visiting from America, who are barely safe in a damaged Land Rover while the lion stalks outside.  Actually, the aspect that I most admire about the film is that the lion is given perfect provocation to go truly wild, having survived an attack on his pride by greedy poachers just before the family arrives on the scene.  It is no wonder that the beast of the title is hunting humans, and I was actually rooting for him at different points in the story.

Baltasar Kormákur’s film spends a lot of time with the family, Dr. Nate Samuels (Idris Elba) and his two teenage daughters, Meredith (Iyana Halley) and Norah (Leah Jeffries).  Dr. Nate is trying to bond with his daughters after his separation from their mother, and her recent death from cancer.  They visit South Africa and stay with Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), a friend of the family.  A tour of the savanna suddenly turns deadly when they discover an entire village population killed by something, and then the lion comes for them.  Complications arise when Martin is separated, and when poachers return to find the lion they know they missed the first time around.  But mostly this is a run and hide and fight back story in which the father will go to any lengths to protect his kids.

Two factors inhibit this story.  One is the obviousness of its plot, which I just described in very basic terms.  It never gets much more complicated than that, although it is either notable or irritating that the characters continually do stupid things to increase their own danger.  Realistically this lion should be rid of all of his enemies, with plenty of people to feed upon for the foreseeable future.  But this is a movie so that’s not going to happen.  The second factor bothered me but it might not bother others.  I wasn’t convinced by the CGI lion, especially during the final confrontation with Dr. Nate.  Seeing as the lion wiped out a whole village of people accustomed to its presence and formidable teeth, it is simply not reasonable to watch Dr. Nate fight it off with a little knife, or that he didn’t lose his limbs in the process.  Once again I found myself thinking that the lion was not at fault, and was only protecting his domain.  ☆ ☆.  27 August 2022.