An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but, since it was directed by Baltasar Kormákur, I thought I might as well check it out. Indeed, somehow, I saw ages ago ‘101 Reykjavík’,  a really obscure movie from Iceland starring Victoria Abril which turned out to be quite intriguing and, since then, Kormákur has reached Hollywood making some decent and also some completely forgettable flicks. Well, this one didn’t make much waves when it was released but I think it was not bad at after all. Indeed, it turned out to be a rather basic survival movie, something which has become some kind of specialty for Kormákur, think ‘Jaws’ in the African savannah. At least, the CGI lion was very well done but I couldn’t shake the idea that, if we did see him less like in ‘Jaws’, it would have been actually more efficient. I also did appreciate how they displayed that what happened to this poor family had nothing to do with some stupid or reckless action from their side. In contrary to ‘Jaws’, they gave here a rather reasonable explanation why this lion was acting completely so violently out of character. However, to be honest, I didn’t care much about the strenuous relationships within this family though. Indeed, it was just too generic and a rather cheap way to show how this father could restore his bond with his daughters through this ordeal. Above all, it was not interesting at all and it remains rather insulting that, in movies taking place in Africa, they still completely discard the natives to always focus on some foreigners, even if they were black this time. Concerning Idris Elba, he was a really solid choice to play the lead and he was convincing, even though it was ridiculous how he had to fight this freaking lion with his bare hands and a knife towards the end. Anyway, to conclude, even if it was nothing mind-blowing, I thought it was still a decent watch and it is worth a look, at least, if you like the genre.