Man versus beast is a trope nearly as old as cinema, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t fun to watch. The next installment in this eternally ongoing film cliche, Beast, will feature Idris Elba going up against a lion that has clearly had enough of humans doing human things and has decided to fight back. The first Beast trailer landed today, and as you might expect, it looks wonderfully cheesy.
The movie doesn’t even attempt to hide its copy/paste formula at all. A man, Dr. Nate Daniels (Elba), goes somewhere with his family to reconnect but instead finds himself and his children in danger thanks to a rampaging beast of some sort — in this case a lion that seems to be a bit more than your normal lion. There is the extra character who is so obviously going to die that one wonders why he isn’t wearing a red shirt the entire time, and there are of course the evil people who eventually teach the audience the lesson that humans were the greatest monster of all. On the other hand, Idris Elba clearly punches a lion in the face in the trailer, and that’s all I really need out of something like Beast.
The film is directed by Baltasar Kormákur, who made the underrated Everest and has a knack for pulling something entertaining out of pure pulp, so hopefully he can do it again here. However, it was written by Ryan Engle, the guy who wrote Rampage, so he’ll probably have his work cut out for him. Martin Battles plays the guy who is going to die, Iyana Halley plays Daniels’ 18-year-old daughter Meredith, and Leah Sava Jeffries plays 13-year-old daughter Norah. CGI plays the lion.
Beast lands in theaters on August 19.
