Title: Beautiful Creatures<\/p>\n
Directed By: Richard LaGravenese<\/p>\n
Starring: Alice Englert, Alden Ehrenreich, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann, Emma Thompson, Margo Martindale, Zoey Deutch, Kyle Gallner<\/B><\/p>\n
\u201cWarm Bodies\u201d proved that \u201cTwilight\u201d didn\u2019t expire the potential of big screen supernatural romances, but the sub-genre does take a big step back with \u201cBeautiful Creatures.\u201d<\/p>\n
Gatlin, South Carolina is home to two kinds of people, the ones that are stupid and the ones that are stuck, and Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) doesn\u2019t want to be either one of them. But, for the time being, Ethan is involuntarily stuck, stuck in a close-minded religious community living in the past. However, stuck isn\u2019t all that bad once Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) walks into his life.<\/p>\n
Even though Lena is isolated by her classmates courtesy of her vilified lineage, Ethan can\u2019t help but to feel drawn to her. Despite her protests, he wins her over, leaving Lena no choice, but to tell Ethan the truth \u2013 she\u2019s not mortal; she\u2019s a caster and on her 16th birthday, her powers will either be claimed for the Dark or the Light, and should they go Dark, Ethan\u2019s life could be at risk.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d has adaptation written all over it, and poor adaptation at that. The movie is a drag with a running time of two hours and three minutes, but it\u2019s still not enough to get the necessary details across, so it\u2019s a lose-lose.<\/p>\n
Things are nice and tidy to start, Ethan painting an amusing picture of Gatlin where folks are so out of touch with the general population that every single girl in town prefaces everything with, \u201cMama says \u2026\u201d Once we get beyond the basics, the narrative spins in circles, wasting a good deal of screen time making the same points about a failed relationship Ethan had with a particularly snobby girl at school, Emily (Zoey Deutch), something that ultimately amounts to nothing.<\/p>\n
But from that point on, the focus is on the heart of the film, Ethan\u2019s relationship with Lena. While Ehrenreich and Englert both put up decent performances and share an adequate amount of chemistry, the arc of their romance doesn\u2019t make much sense. Not only is it tough to buy that a girl once so adamantly opposed to letting this boy into her life would, all of a sudden, become madly in love with him, but the lore attached to their connection is ludicrous. Simply stating a point or providing exposition through a flashback doesn\u2019t necessitate an audience take the information as fact; a movie needs to get a person to believe and \u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d rarely achieves that.<\/p>\n
A major part of the problem is that the large majority of the characters are totally na\u00efve. A mysterious force just blows out the windows of a classroom and nobody questions the cause? People merely blame Lena without ever trying to discuss the power she would hold to make such a thing happen. Then, even though Ethan is smart enough to wonder about such an occurrence, he then conforms to the fact that his new girlfriend is something along the lines of a witch way too easily \u2013 and the same goes for most of the film\u2019s major beats.<\/p>\n
The plot plays out as though it was constructed for convenience. Lena lets Ethan into her life so the story can advance, Ethan goes along with the caster thing so the story can advance, the villainous Sarafine reveals herself at the opportune time so the story can advance. Yes, every single thing in a movie should propel a story forward, but that forward motion needs to be earned and in the case of \u201cBeautiful Creatures,\u201d everything is deliberately placed and never earned. It distinctly feels as though writer-director Richard LaGravenese plucked certain parts of a larger story and desperately tried to stitch them together, and the film feels disjointed and incomplete because of it.<\/p>\n
Then again, that doesn\u2019t mean there\u2019s not a little fun to be had with the film. \u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d is far form proficient, but sparks of potential are evident. The world itself is quite interesting and would have been engrossing had the details been doled out in an appropriate and sufficient manner. Ethan and Lena\u2019s relationship treads a little too closely to schmaltzy, blind love \u00e1 la \u201cThe Twilight Saga,\u201d but the pair is talented enough to deliver a handful of charming moments, namely Lena\u2019s raincloud temper tantrum. Emmy Rossum almost manages to turn Ridley Duchannes, Lena\u2019s cousin, into a standout villainous, but unfortunately, the character\u2019s arc takes a sharp right towards ineffectual nothing, making anything Rossum accomplishes a fleeting feat. <\/p>\n
As for our Oscar winners, Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons should be 65% embarrassed and 35% proud for letting loose and having some fun. The pair does bring a dose of life to the movie with their over-the-top performances, but, in the end, they amount to little beyond a show of pure silliness. Viola Davis, however, actually manages to turn her character into a real person, one of few in \u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d. Amma may be on the underdeveloped side, but thanks to some notably natural delivery, when Amma says something, you listen, just like the other characters in the film.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d does suggest that Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl\u2019s source material had big screen potential, so the end result is particularly disappointing. Unless the film goes on to earn a surprisingly pretty penny at the box office, \u201cBeautiful Creatures\u201d can kiss its franchise potential goodbye and try to make due with being a barely passable Valentine\u2019s day fling.<\/p>\n
Technical: B<\/p>\n
Acting: B<\/p>\n
Story: C-<\/p>\n
Overall: C+<\/B><\/p>\n
![\"Beautiful](\"http:\/\/g-ecx.images-amazon.com\/images\/G\/01\/imdb\/plugins\/rating\/images\/imdb_31x14.png\")