Beast review: Idris Elba battles a rogue lion in action-packed man v nature blockbuster

Long before Idris Elba decided to pick a fight with a lion in his new film, Beast, the movie business has been fascinated with the idea of man v nature.

Sometimes it’s a metaphor for humanity’s attempts to subjugate the natural world, and other times it’s just about spilling blood and guts in the name of entertainment.

Over the years, we’ve seen a veritable Noah’s ark of creatures do battle with actors on the big screen, and they aren’t always bona fide apex predators.

A flock of weirdly homicidal birds were enough to kill off a few peeps in a Hitchcock classic.

Liam Neeson fought wolves in The Grey, JLo fought a snake in Anaconda, Samuel L. Jackson fought a bunch of snakes, and on a plane to boot; and then there are the sharks. So many sharks.

A big shark in Jaws, a really big shark in The Meg, a tornado of sharks in Sharknado and even a shark poltergeist in Ghost Shark, which is indeed a real movie, released in 2013, starring the littlest kid from 7th Heaven and every bit as bad as it sounds.

So, what’s the takeaway here? If we’ve learned anything from the above list of films it’s that, done well, a man v nature movie can be visceral cinema that serves as a cautionary tale designed to remind us that our status atop the food chain is illusory.

Beast certainly fits into that category, although one wonders who needed to be reminded that hand-to-hand combat with a fully grown African lion is a bad idea.

Old mate Elba doesn’t have much choice, though, and not just because he’s trying to catch the attention of the James Bond producers in the hopes of landing the coveted 007 role.

Elba’s character in the movie is forced to fight the king of the jungle to save his teenage daughters, after a trip to Africa, and the home town of their dearly departed mum (his estranged wife), is rudely interrupted by a lion whose pride was killed by poachers and now is bent on killing any human it encounters.

What really elevates Beast above some of the aforementioned B-movie schlock is the canny direction of Icelandic filmmaker Baltasar Kormakur, who previously helmed the above-average action-thrillers, 2 Guns and Everest.

With a series of seemingly long, continuous shots, Kormakur effectively builds the tension, adding realism to his computer-generated lion.

The film is almost undone by some head-scratching moments, and a killer lion that appears to become short-sighted and lose its sense of smell around Elba, but the British actor has enough star power to drag man AND beast to something resembling a decent movie.

Stars: 3

Starring: Idris Elba, Sharlto Copley, Leah Jeffries, Iyana Halley

Rating: MA15+

In cinemas: Now