Like The Wizarding World, audiences seemingly tolerated the Jurassic World franchise. While the movies made gobs of money over the last seven years, they’ve largely only served to remind viewers that there’s really only one good Jurassic Park movie, and it’s called Jurassic Park.
So as the world exhales a sigh of relief over the Jurassic World series coming to an end, Universal is, once again, looking to history for humanity’s next threat. And just as ancient Romans fed people to lions, so, too, will Universal ruin Idris Elba’s family safari by feeding the expedition’s members to the king of the jungle.
Beast, a movie wherein Idris Elba takes his daughters on safari only to discover that lions eat people, is Universal’s next nature-based adventure. Taking what is the meat of Jurassic Park and sticking it in the dangerous wilderness of South Africa, Universal is ready to roar with another movie in which cartoon animals attack people.
Elba stands in for Sam Neill as widower Dr. Nate Daniels, who brings his two daughters, Meredith and Norah (Iyana Halley and Leah Sava Jeffries) to South Africa, where Daniels met his lost love. For some reason, Daniels really wanted to go to a game reserve run by a family friend, Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), who will seemingly engage in Battles with a lion that is “a survivor of blood-thirsty poachers who now sees all humans as the enemy.”
As it turns out, lions are not huge fans of being slaughtered by wealthy dentists, businessmen, and the failsons of former presidents, and they want revenge.
It’s difficult to not compare Elba protecting his kids within the confines of an SUV without thinking of Jurassic Park. But when you consider that Dr. Daniels is also jumping into that single-parent role while fending off the piercing teeth of nature’s great predators, well, then it’s clear that this is a separate, wholly new thing....
Directed by Icelandic director Balthasar Kormákur, Beast immediately feels like an early attempt at franchise building now that Jurassic Park is ending. Although, nature-based disaster films have done quite well in the last few years. Movies like The Meg and Crawl indicate that, actually, big scary animals are the problem.
Beast will be galloping into that sweet Meg spot this summer, arriving in theaters on August 19.