Director: Tyler Atkins
Writers: David Frigerio, Russell Crowe
Stars: Daniel MacPherson, Mojean Aria, Russell Crowe
Synopsis: MMA legend Patton James, now a commercial fisherman, is pulled back into the cage when his brother is in danger. Reuniting with his old coach Sammy, he commits to one final fight in ONE Championship against its brutal champion Xavier Grau.
Films that feature MMA fighting are so much more brutal than other combat sport films. While there are harrowing fight scenes in boxing films, the fighting is structured and regulated. The same with films that deal with martial arts competitions. In a film with MMA there’s technique and skill like the others, but it feels like the point of the fight is physical damage. In boxing you hit, but you hit to score or knock down. In most competitive martial arts films, the defeat of the opponent is done with points or a pin. The fighters in MMA hit seemingly without any motive beyond completely incapacitating their opponent. Unless in the narrative of the opponent being an actual “bad guy,” watching our hero beat the snot out of someone else is a bit unsatisfying and hardly motivational. This makes films like Beast struggle to find footing in a genre dominated by inspiration and heart.
Beast certainly tries every trope in the genre, though. It wants to get us to feel something for Patton (Daniel MacPherson) and his journey back into the fight game. Writers David Frigerio and Russell Crowe give Patton every one of the major sports motivations. His financial situation is precarious, sibling rivalry, sibling protection, revenge, and redemption are all reasons Patton returns to the fighting world. Even though most overlap at some point, they do try to let the story evolve into each of these motivations, but it’s at the sacrifice of all the characters.
The character that suffers most from this is Malon (Mojean Aria) who is Patton’s younger brother. Malon is a jerk. He’s brash, aggressive, and every cliche of the fighter looking for something to prove. After he’s seriously injured in a fight, Malon could have become more vulnerable, maybe made his way back into his brother’s life in a more meaningful way, but he’s not given that chance. He just becomes a prop in Patton’s motivation to fight Xavier Grau (Bren Foster) one last time. It’s even more confounding as Patton seems to have genuine affection for this little twerp. In the flashback scenes the two of them have, there is a heartfelt gauziness to the screen. Yet these are near wordless seconds of screen time. We’re given no real reason why Patton should ever give this goober the time of day. This relationship holds no real weight and so for it to be the linchpin for so many actions that Patton takes is baffling.
Though, most who may want to see this film may see the story and characters as just a means to an end anyway. The main reason to see a film like Beast is to see the emotional arc of the characters take physical form in the circle, as these fighters call their ring. The three fight sequences created by director Tyler Atkins and cinematographer Thomaz Labanca are exciting. They look like these blows are landing as hard as they would be in life. It looks utterly brutal. Thankfully you can forget the lackluster story once the final fight begins.
The final fight sequence is very long. There are lots of cuts to Luciana (Kelly Gale), Patton’s wife, terrified at home, Sammy (Russell Crowe), his former trainer, streaming on his computer at the gym, and Barry (Matt Nable), the loan shark, and his enforcers watching on Barry’s strip club headquarters’ big screen. The sequence is a far better short film than the feature before it. You almost wish they could have created a framework around this fight with short interludes of flashbacks between rounds to give context. Without the linear nature of the scenes that come before, though, the context of the fight is lost. The film builds up to this contest and makes it the make or break of the film.
With that in mind, your mileage with Beast may vary. There is certainly a story and plot, but it’s nothing new and really just everything old about combat sport films. The action is dynamic and the training montages are top notch, but most of the rest is not that interesting. A film about MMA shouldn’t be this much of a snooze.
