The Last Lions (2011)
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Reviews Counted: 38
Fresh: 33 | Rotten: 5
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: 7.3/10
Critic Reviews: 18
Fresh: 16 | Rotten: 2
No consensus yet.
liked it
Average Rating: 4.2/5
User Ratings: 1,532
My Rating
Movie Info
A resilient lioness in Botswana's Okavango Delta embarks on an epic journey of survival in this nature documentary from National Geographic and award-winning filmmakers Dereck and Beverly Joubert. Narrated by Academy Award winner Jeremy Irons, The Last Lions follows Ma di Tau ("Mother of Lions") as she races to get her cubs to safety during a rampaging fire, and fends off ferocious lioness Silver Eye, the murderous matriarch of a rival pride. Crossing crocodile-infested waters on a quest to
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Cast
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Jeremy Irons
Narrator
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All Critics (38) | Top Critics (18) | Fresh (33) | Rotten (5)
Gripping.
Top CriticA gorgeous looking film filled with the sort of footage one can only get with patience and persistence.
Many of the sequences are intense, like those in which the lioness refines its hunting strategies in unfamiliar territory. But they're undercut by Jeremy Irons's sonorous narration.
Wrenching and wondrous, Dereck and Beverly Joubert's documentary The Last Lions is not a tale for the faint-hearted.
No matter how you feel about real-life drama being shaped and enhanced in the editing room, this is wildlife storytelling at its formidable finest.
It's all very melodramatic, but the Jouberts accompany this story with incredible visuals, with an exceptional level of access.
an extraordinary achievement
There's some heartbreaking stuff here but also moments of triumph. Not to mention visuals that will leave audiences breathless.
It's uplifting, but also raw and brutal.
Especially if older kids are already fascinated with wild animals, they'll be mesmerized, and will probably successfully badger you to donate to the cause via text message on the way out of the theater.
Visually stunning nature docu has some upsetting scenes.
This nature documentary about the vanishing lions of Africa is not your children's Lion King.
This is National Geographic writ raw for effect, and "The Last Lions" suffers for it.
While "The Last Lions" lacks the visceral excitement of some other survival dramas, it has anthropomorphic heart to spare.
If something can be done to save these last lions, this sort of honest appraisal is exactly the first step we need.
Quite possibly the most emotionally wrenching, stunningly beautiful film I've yet to encounter - fiction or otherwise.
The Last Lions turns Duba Island into a theater of survival, love, and adaptation.
So much is contained in the film, from real technical virtuosity to heart-wrenching moments of pathos, that it's a shame it seems satisfied to be so ordinary in other aspects.
Audience Reviews for The Last Lions
Super Reviewer
Its a must see for a number of reasons, how the law of jungle works and most importantly how human beings are destroying the ecology of these incredible animals.
Super Reviewer
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February 17, 2011:
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My problem with this documentary is that not everything seemed real... yes, I know that the nature could be amazing but some of the events depicted in this story just did not match or made sense, and when you see that final result is very impressive and exiting dramatic effect - you start wondering what else in the story was "touched up".