SYNOPSIS
An orphan stows away on the ship of her favorite monster hunter but learns monster-hunting isn't exactly as it's portrayed in her favorite book.
WHERE DID I WATCH IT?
Netflix had SEA BEAST as #2 on their top ten movies a couple days ago so I thought I'd see what all the fuss was about.
WHAT DID I THINK?
The movie both was and was not what I expected from some CGI kids movie about monster-hunters and gigantic dragon-whale creatures. I saw what looked like sea-dragons, pirates, old-fashioned navy battles, and what may or may not turn out into a colorful monster island for the main duo to explore.
The film revolves mostly around these two -- a popular monster-hunter named Jacob and a little orphan girl named Maisie. Jacob is the honorary son of even more popular monster hunter Captain Crow and Maisie is further linked to monster-hunting beyong he fascination for the job by the fact her parents used to be monster-hunters on a ship called the Monarch.
The voice of the other main character Maisie is played by Zaris-Angel Hator who is very young which is completely appropriate for the role and has quite some big names on her short filmography career-- most recent being the comic-book movie "Morbius" and a role on a TV series based on a Margaret Atwood booked called, "The Power." I think Zaris-Angel did a great job voicing the young Maisie, bringing a great deal of personality and dramatic range to the role. Her character isn't some simplified kid but a girl answering her own call to adventure, albeit following in the foot steps of her long-gone parents who perished doing the very thing she dreams about doing -- monster hunting.
There's some other pretty-famous names on the list of voice actors for THE SEA BEAST as well, including the below:
Jared Harris is known from popular TV series FRINGE on Fox and from the HBO hit mini-series CHERNOBYL.
Dan Stevens is famous for the Fox hit series LEGION where he played Professor Xavier's multi-powered titular son. He's also known for his role on the even more popular DOWNTOWN ABBEY.
Jim Carter is also famous for also starring in the famous DOWNTOWN ABBEY and even has TRANSFORMERS in his credits.
Then there's another famous face, Marianne Jean-Baptiste famous for the movie SPY GAME, the TV series WITHOUT A TRACE, BROACH CHURCH, and HOMECOMING.
Anyway back to the movie THE SEA BEAST. As you can see from the above image, not all the monsters are dragon-whale hybrids and happen to come in a lot of different sizes, colors, and shapes. Unfortunately the movie doesn't show us too many of these sea beasts which I found to be a weak point in the film. The way they focus on the one red sea-beast made me wish they'd made it the titular monster by naming the movie after i -- the Red Bluster.
Here's another one of the sea-beasts, a smaller pet-like creature, that Maisie names "Blue." I can't remember if it's just a smaller type of sea beast or if it's a baby but it follows her around like a dog and is decent source of cute comedic-relief in the film. Unfortunately one of the downfalls of the film is that just not enough information on these beasties is given and I was left scratching my head a lot when it came to them.
The monster-hunters who Maisie idolizes, the type of people her parents used to be before their untimely deaths, are basically akin to whale-hunters. Above in the hat we can see Jared Harris' character Captain Crow who acts a pseudo-father figure for Karl Urban's character Jacob.
One of my gripes with the film is that I felt that there wasn't enough explanation for the world of SEA BEAST and even when things got interesting the film doesn't take the opportunity to pursue those information tangents, or not even tangents. There's a lot about the world and the titular sea-beasts and sea beast that remains a complete mystery even up until it's end -- almost as if the movie ends at the end of Act 2 instead of a final Act 3 like in most movies.
Overall it was still a much better movie than I expected with a pretty important message at the end.
FINAL GRADE?
Hope you enjoyed this movie review!
If you're interested in more movies reviews by me, here's a list of my previous entries:
Movie Review for 2021's "Belle"
Movie Review for 2020's "The Night House"
Movie Review for 2021's "Hellbender"
Movie Review for 2022's "Chainsaw Massacre"
Movie Review for 2014's "Mama"
Movie Review for 2021's "Master"
Movie Review for 2021's "Stillwater"
Movie Review for 2021's "Blue Bayou"
Movie Review for 1997's "Conspiracy Theory"
Movie Review for 2016's "A Silent Voice"
Movie Review for 2019's "Weathering With You"
Movie Review for 2021's "A Classic Horror Story"
Movie Review for 2016's "Your Name"
Movie Review for 2017's "Wind River"
Just saw this movie with my niece yesterday and it was amazing. I really enjoyed the adventure and the boldness of the little orphan girl. One funny thing is when my niece who after seeing the movie told me to take her to the sea so she could also befriend a sea monster and I looked her in the eyes and said alright let's go but get ready to be eaten whole😂.
The movie industry has a way of messing with our minds.
The movie had some good messages in it -- even heroes can be wrong, who writes the history we learn to take as truth, and what happens when we empathize with an individual or group that our society tells us to vilify?
I'm glad to hear this film inspired your niece to want to check out the sea and look for a sea-monster friend. It's always good when a TV show or movie inspires curiosity like that.
Wishing you and your niece lots of luck with the monster-hunting and thank you for checking out my post! Very much appreciated!