Beautiful Creatures

The word on the street is that this is the expected successor after the conclusion of the Twilight film franchise, having some parallels in its tale that deals with the supernatural, and love between a being of higher power and that of an ordinary human except for the reversal of genders, and set in a schooling environment of an idyllic small town where people know just about everyone else. It's also based on a successful series of novels by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, so it's everyone's bet just how this first installment would perform that would determine its future as a potential film franchise, where many other potentials have fallen after its initial start - The Dark is Rising, The Golden Compass, and I am Number Four, to name but a few in this genre.

Beautiful Creatures starts off rather beautifully, with awesome visuals that would set to engage and create that visual feast for the eyes, crafting a mystery from the onset in the dreams of protagonist Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), who see an ominous sequence of events, only to not see who that raven haired female is due to a deliberate obscuring by her long tresses. But soon enough the latest stranger in town happens to be Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), who brings forth with her immense powers, conveniently unleashed against those who taunt her because of their small town mentality, especially that of Ethan's ex Emily (Zoey Deutch).

But Lena has other problems to worry about, and that's due to an internal family feud, with different camps set up who want her pledged allegiance, being a caster and thought to be one of the most powerful ones yet. On one hand there's Macon (Jeremy Irons) her uncle who serves as adviser and father figure. But on the other, is mom Safarine (Emma Thompson) and evil cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) who try to turn her, all of whom come together for that merry celebration of computer generated imagery that in all honesty, are gorgeously rendered, making Beautiful Creatures live up to its namesake. It's almost like Star Wars with Safarine dead set in getting Lena turn to the dark side when it's her 16th birthday, so that they can rule the universe and galaxy with their powers, between mother and daughter. Lofty ambitions, but that's what evil folks fantasize about.

The romance is something you'd have to get used to though, since it forms the bulk of the story here. If you're a fan of Twilight and its treatment of first love between two unlikely beings separated by life, then this would be something quite up the same alley, with inherent powers that define the abilities of one side of the couple, which are used for that effective courtship. There's plenty of cooing between the love birds here as they spend time together like any teenager in love, if not researching with Amma (Viola Davis), who is a seer of the town, and an ally in Lena's identity crisis.

If I had to give this film its due credit, it will be how it set up the hook for that emotional resonance in the final scene. There has to be some personal sacrifice in store for our protagonists in order to cement their relationship, although the solution presented here was of a taller order, that called for some twists during the big magical battle set against the recreation of the Civil War's Battle of Honey Hill. It was in fact, the final few minutes that became the movie's saving grace, and lifted it from mediocrity, providing it that bit of a heart beat and soul that primed itself for subsequent episodes in the series.

A common criticism of BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is that it doesn't do justice to the original novel, which is often the case when the book is really good. I had not read the book prior to watching this but am now eager to do so.

Regardless, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is vividly filmed with good performances by Alice Englert, Alden Ehrenreich, Emmy Rossum, Rachel Brosnahan, and just about everyone else. Another frequent complaint seems to be that there is not enough in the magic/special effects department: True, but the relative sparseness here adds a necessary realism and highlights what spectactics the film does have. The townspeople of Gatlin, South Carolina, are stereotypical Bible-thumping yokel-rubes, but that serves its purpose in the way it contrasts Lena (Englert), who is just about the only character who does not speak in a deep-southern accent. It also helps in how Ethan (Ehrenreich) and his buddy Link (Thomas Mann) completely defy their hickish appearances. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES captures the whole Southern Gothic tradition quite well. One way or another, the relationships in this film are very real. BEAUTIFUL CREATURES also walks the thin horror-comedy line most admirably.

On the dimmer end of things, the whole texture of the film is a little slow and murky, and it would probably have been a little better with a few minutes cut here and there.

When I first heard that Beautiful Creatures (the novel) was going to be adapted into a movie, I was hesitant to see it, due to the fact that the trailers were absolutely horrible. I'm just glad that the movie focused on a lot more than a supernatural romance, because that's only one of many interesting and complicated plot lines.

Despite the fact that the LA Times and the NY Times gave the flick great reviews, a bunch of lesser-known critics were much harsher on it. After reading some of these reviews, I was shocked to see how biased and silly some of the comments were. It was clear that these were people that walked in to the theater expecting Twilight and were too self-conscious about praising a teen movie to say that it wasn't.

Twilight is all about the romance. Beautiful Creatures has a big Romeo and Juliet thing going on, but at the same time, there's mysteries, prophesies, hypocrisy, Southern politics, Civil War history, religion, death, evil forces, and all sorts of madness making for quite an interesting story (with some very witty and sarcastic dialogue to put a cherry on top).

Other people that read the book were likewise upset, because they thought it strayed too much from the source material. The only MAJOR change made was about 3/4 of the way through the movie, and the end result was still the same as the book. The reason why the writer did this was for the sake of TIME. If he hadn't made that change, the movie would have dragged on for three hours as oppose to rapping itself up nicely at two.

I thought the acting was good as well, and Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert had nice chemistry as Ethan and Lena. Of course, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, and Viola Davis gave great performances, but that comes as no surprise. Emmy Rossum as the wicked siren, Ridley, was fabulous, and Thomas Mann was hilarious as Link.

I especially loved Thompson's twisted character-she played a crazy Republican fundamentalist named Mrs. Lincoln, who gets possessed by Sarafine Duchannes, the most powerful Dark Caster alive. As Sarafine, her performance was definitely "Dark", bridging on psychotic. Not what I was expecting, but I liked it.

However, I thought some of the other actors, like the girls that played the Barbie cheerleaders, were horrible. There is a way to portray phony people and there is a way to pull off a satire while still keeping it believable.

Besides plot and acting, I loved the costumes and set. They were very beautifully done and really captured the gorgeous yet creepy atmosphere of the story. In addition, the effects were cool-nothing to die over, but they served their purpose.

Lastly, I thought the soundtrack was awesome and very different. The mix of classical, blues, country, and alternative music worked great with the film.

Overall, I think the movie is an 8 out of 10. It's not amazing, but it is entertaining, interesting, and something I recommend seeing.

Im 33 years old and probably not in the main-group for this movie (teengirls maybe). But me and my friend got a free ticket and went for this movie we would normally not had seen.

But i was charmed. The young actors played well, was cute and had chemistry together. We smiled many times, and the effects was good. The story was OK, and i have never read the story this movie is build on.

This is a good movie i think, and probably they will make more movies so we see how the story will go. I found it fun with the southern small town fun of religious narrowness. And the fight between good and evil is a fight in many of the fantasy-movies, and that was a red line in this movie and worked good.

Fun also to see Emma Thompson, she did a awesome actor-work.

Although there are some elements of twilight in the story. I found it to be a much better viewing experience. I was definitely surprised by how good it was. I may be biased because I like fantasy films a lot. Nevertheless, in some areas it was a little slow, especially at the beginning, but it does pick as the story continues.

Typical fantasy romance film plot, but it is fun to watch.I liked the fact that the story occurred in an isolated town and the rest of the world being completely oblivious to the existence of witches. Personally it made me feel as if something like this, no matter how absurd, could actually be happening.

Note- this is my first ever review and it is rushed, so be nice.