Movie Thoughts: Beast (2022)

• Released: August 10th, 2022
• Directed by: Baltasar Kormákur
• Running time: 1h 33min
• Rating 3.5/5

Synopsis

A family gets stranded on the African savannah, where they are being hunted by a man-eating lion. 

My Thoughts

Is this objectively a great movie? Eh, probably not. But did I enjoy it? Yes, absolutely. Sometimes a cool action movie can just be a cool action movie. 

This is movie is nothing complex. Simple premise, but it works. The characters are pretty one-note as well, but I still liked the main family well enough. Enough to root for them to survive this ordeal, at least. 

The lion is also a badass villain and I like how powerful he is, and how he isn't easily taken down. His ultimate demise at the paws of two "good" lions was also way cooler than it would've been if he'd simply been shot by a gun or whatever.

If I do have a critique, it's that I'm not entirely sure if I like how the lion is villainized despite the main problem of the movie being poaching. The only reason why the man-eater becomes a man-eater, is because he wants revenge for his pride which was wiped out by poachers.  And yes, the poachers are taken care of in this movie, but ultimately it still portrays the lion as the main villain despite him honestly being a more sympathetic character than any of the poacher assholes. I get wanting a badass man-eating animal as your main villain, but I don't know, I kinda wish that the lion wasn't villainized quite as much.

But yeah, this is still a pretty badass movie I enjoyed. Lots of great action, likable main characters, good CGI on the lions (also, did you spot the Christian the Lion reference?) and a simple yet effective story that keeps the viewer engaged.