When those behind pitched 2022’s Beast, did the synopsis offer anything more than “Idris Elba fights a lion”? Probably not.

After the death of his wife, Dr. Nate Samuels (Elba) takes his semi-estranged teen daughters Norah (Leah Jeffries) and Meredith (Iyana Halley) on a trip to Africa. There they plan to visit where the girls’ mother grew up and see local wildlife as well.

Along with Nate’s pal and tour guide Martin Battles (Sharlto Copley), the Samuels clan embarks on this visit. However, a rogue lion stalks them and creates danger.

And then: Elba fights a lion. Maybe that should go under “spoiler alert”, but publicity pushed that angle hard enough that this mano y gato confrontation becomes inevitable.

It also seems pretty silly, as does much of Beast. Despite an attempt to ground the tale in reality, it tends to feel goofy too much of the time, without the tension and drama it aspires to provide.

The wafer-thin nature of the plot doesn’t help. Admittedly, one can argue a movie like Beast shouldn’t come with much of a story, as the “man vs. animal” theme doesn’t offer much room for narrative development.

This means the filmmakers invent contrived drama to fill out the running time. The tension between Nate and his daughters adds little to the plot, and none of the characters emerge as dimensional or compelling.

I probably would excuse these dull elements if the movie’s stabs at action felt more satisfying. Unfortunately, these never come across as especially tense or engaging.

One could feel some of that comes from the inevitability of who’ll survive. No spoilers, of course, but it doesn’t take much to know who’ll make it to the end of the film.

However, plenty of stories come with predictable conclusions, so Beast enjoys a lot of company. Many of those siblings nonetheless manage drama and audience anxiety.

This doesn’t occur with Beast. The movie plods through its attempts at drama without any real spark or engagement, all as we wait for the inevitable finale I alluded to at the start.

At least the 93-minute running time of Beast means it doesn’t wear out its welcome. That said, the film fails to find much excitement or spark across that fairly brief span.

Beast appears in an aspect ratio of :1 on this Blu-ray Disc. This turned into an appealing presentation.

Overall sharpness worked fine. A few low-light shots seemed a bit soft, but the majority of the movie offered solid delineation.

No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects emerged, and I saw no edge haloes. Print flaws remained absent.

Colors veered toward a standard mix of amber and teal. The image replicated these as expected.

Blacks felt deep and dark, while shadows brought largely worthwhile clarity outside of the aforementioned handful of murky bits. Expect a positive picture here.

In addition, the movie’s DTS-HD MA 7.1 soundtrack worked well. With a fair amount of action on display, the various speakers received active usage.

The soundscape opened up most when it came to scenes with lions and/or battles, but it succeeded during quieter segments as well. The general sense of environment seemed engaging.

Audio quality felt good, with speech that came across as natural and concise. Music boasted nice range and clarity.

Effects showed strong accuracy and impact, with deep low-end as necessary. I thought the soundtrack suited the story and added to the movie.

One Deleted Scene spans 47 seconds. It offers a short sequence between the sisters and doesn’t add much.

Six featurettes follow, and Creating the Beast goes for four minutes, seven seconds. It provides notes from visual effects producer Hal Couzens, visual effects supervisor Enrik Pavdeja, animation supervisor Alvise Avati, stunt double Owen Macrae, and director Baltasar Kormákur.

As expected, this one looks at various elements used to bring the movie’s lions to life. It offers a short but tight summary.

The Final Battle fills two minutes, 57 seconds and features Kormákur, Macrae, producer Will Packer, and actor Idris Elba.

Here we learn about aspects of the movie’s climactic confrontation. Like the last featurette, this one seems satisfying given its brevity.

Next comes Making It Real, a four-minute, 10-second segment that involves Kormákur, Packer, Elba, prosthetics supervisor Clinton Smith, prosthetics assistant supervisor Daleen Badenhorst, and actor Iyana Halley.

“Real” covers makeup effects used to replicate various injuries and wounds. Expect another solid little show.

Filming in the Beast’s Territory lasts five minutes, three seconds and gives us info from Packer, Kormákur, Elba, Halley, producer James Lopez, production designer Jean-Vincent Puzos, costume designer Moira Meyer, and actor Leah Jeffries.

Via “Territory”, we get a take on locations, costumes and production design. It delivers a quick but informative recap.

After this we go to Family Bond, a six-minute, five-second show that includes Elba, Halley, Jeffries, Packer, and Kormákur.

“Bond” examines cast, characters and performances. A few insights emerge, but most of it feels like happy talk.

Finally, A Lion’s Pride occupies seven minutes, 42 seconds and delivers remarks from Elba, Lion Center at the University of Minnesota founder/director Dr. Craig Packer and Lion Guardians co-founder Dr. Stephanie Dolrenry.

With “Pride”, we get facts about the lives of lions. It comes as a decent summary, though it acts more as a public service announcement than anything else.

The disc opens with an ad for Nope. No trailer for Beast appears here.

A second disc offers a DVD copy of Beast. It includes the same extras as the Blu-ray.

As a man vs. nature tale, Beast comes with dramatic potential. However, it feels stuck in neutral too much of the time and never develops much real impact. The Blu-ray offers solid picture and audio along with a decent set of supplements. Beast becomes a bit of a snore.