Universal Releases Yet Another Subpar Film

Beast, starring Idris Elba, is yet another action filled movie full of worthless themes and characters.

"Just Stay In The Car!"

I am a huge fan of Idris Elba; he has given us incredible performances in films such as Dark Tower and Hobbs & Shaw. However, in Beast, he plays a more powerless character. He, his children, and a friend become stranded in a vehicle, unable to move and escape. As a result, Idris Elba must escape the situation on his own, giving this movie a very basic storyline. Aside from that, we find that Idris's family is grieving the death of their mother. As a result of this backdrop, it is reasonable to expect some genuine healing moments. Idris's purpose in visiting his daughters' motherland must have been to alleviate their pain at their mother's death. I predicted that the father would now soothe his daughters and try to resurrect them and that the film would include some life-filled sequences. Boy, was I wrong!

Dull Plot

The plot is relatively straightforward: Idris tries to escape and save himself and his family from an attacking lion. While somewhat emotional scenes are scattered throughout the film, the movie is essentially just a lion terrorizing a family for 90 minutes. The addition of the death of this children's mother serves as the emotional portion of this movie. However, it is not given enough importance, and as a result, the film is bland, as 90 percent of the movie is pure action. If they had included some additional aspects to each character and the storyline, the film would have had much more substance.

Average Action and Confusing Themes

Even if you love pure action movies, there's still a slight chance this film will miss for you. Due to monotonous action sequences and no real innovation, even action fanatics wouldn't be able to appreciate it. The theme of this movie was obvious but unclear, and here's what that means. The film, at face value, is a thriller, but with tones of mystery and even horror mixed in, it becomes overwhelming to the watcher. As mentioned before, a bit of emotion is added into the film, obviously meant to cut through the thrill and suspense. But as it wasn't emphasized enough, it just adds to the giant jumble of themes that this movie is filled with.

Closing Critiques

While Beast is slightly better than Jurassic World: Dominion, released by Universal Pictures earlier this year, it does not quite reach Minions: Rise of Gru, which was average. I pray Universal Pictures cleans their act up, or soon they will have an established reputation for mediocre pictures. I'd recommend this film to anyone bored and in the mood for some thrill. However, anyone looking for a quality movie should stay far away.

Raving Rating: 6.0