Review of Beautiful Creatures Movie
Scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being Light (Super, super awesome!) and 1 being Dark (Super, super terrible):
8
First off, I want to congratulate the actors and actresses for their amazing performance. Movie flaws aside, they delivered what they needed to and adapted a unique Southern-style and I really have to give them a hand for their wonderful job.
I'll go with things I liked first. I loved the synergy between the cast. Absolutely spot on and compared to some other teen love movies, (*cough* twilight), I felt like it was very natural and interesting. My top 3 list of favorite cast members has to go like this:
1) Emma Thompson: WOW, I thought she wasn't going to be that big, but just wow. On spot and perfectly how I imagined both Mrs. Lincoln and Sarafine. Love the way she uses her surroundings to make her character more sinister and…just perfect.
2) Jeremy Irons: I knew he was going to do great, but this is so different from anything he's done before, and it was spectacular. I am a huge fan and I remember him in Eragon, where he was one of the few things that saved that movie for me. (And by saved I mean I kept watching it, although I wanted to shut it off). His voice is already god-like and his southern accent sounded a bit forced at some times, but smooth nevertheless. Great work and I hope he does more films like these.
3) Emmy Rossum: I knew that I knew her from somewhere, just remembered Phantom of the Opera, but I haven't seen her in a while. She was amazing and her side stories were kinda weird, but cool and she was just so bad-ass the entire time. She was probably in almost all of my favorite scenes and perfect as Ridley.
This leads me to my top 3 favorite scenes:
1) Dinner table on Halloween – Need I say more? I love how everyone, Macon, Arelia, and Del try to keep the things on the table and start yelling at Lena and Ridley to stop, while Larkin is just eating.
2) Church Scene – Nailed itttttttt! I mean, yeah it wasn't the school, but still, things change. Macon just struts in, looking slightly disgusted by the church, and just gives a cool and calm speech. (P.S. Macon likes Google? Def want to use that in my story xD) Then his argument with Mrs. Lincoln/Sarafine was epic and reminded me of when adults fight; they get so serious. Great acting, great actors, great scene
3) Window shattering scene – I didn't know how they were going to pull it off, but they did and I'm glad for it. When Emily and Savannah, I think, were chanting, I was thinking "Stuf bought to go downnnn" and then the windows shattered and the rest is history.
Now then the things I did not like:
Ethan entering Ravenwood
The Greenbrier scene
The Ending (obviously)
Larkin
Ravenwood family?
No real conflict with the other students
BOO RADLEY
So I didn't like the fact Ethan just sailed through Ravenwood and was like "Hey Lena, I just went through your house, totally not creepy or anything, and found you, wanna talk? I do admit, I did laugh when Macon was casting Ethan to say all the depressing things his future will hold him and I feel kinda bad now in retrospect. I also had a very different view of the house from my mind; I thought the stairs were going to be not so spirally and more antique. Also, no mention of House or Kitchen (at least I don't remember) and I don't think MY adaptations of House and Kitchen will take that very lightly.
The Greenbrier scene, the pseudo-ending, was a bit on and off for me. I didn't like how Link just shot him; I think Sarafine stabbing him would have been much cooler and more like her character. The storm thing was weird and I wish they brought in Hunting; would've been slightly cool. One thing I did like was how Macon took Ethan's place, I thought that was a cool plot twist and it kinda works now that I look back on it. I did NOT like how Ethan was just sleeping the entire time.
The ending, I'll just leave it at that. It was basically a slap in the face saying, "No second movie, have a nice life!" And the "6 months later" thing was really lame.
Larkin – LARKIN IS EVIL. That I really was pissed off with. Seriously, I wish they replaced his "good role" part with Leah or Uncle Barclay or someone other than LARKIN.
Which brings me to my next point: Where was the Raven-freaking-wood family? Ryan? Reece? Uncle Barclay? Honestly it was it kinda pathetic how they only had Arelia, AuntDel, and Larkin. Was it casting problems or too big of a payroll I don't know, but very disappointed.
One element that makes Beautiful Creatures series just great and a BIG separator from Twilight (for those still making comparisons) is that the school HATES Ethan and Lena together. Didn't see Earl talking to Ethan in the locker room or the other guys telling Ethan "once you've gone down this road, no turning back." (One of the best lines in my opinion, even though its pretty cliché.) Wish there was more hate from the students of Gatlin.
Anddd finally, BOO RADLEY! I've been thinking of making a Fanfic which features Boo Radley as a human instead of a dog and was hoping for some ideas in the movie, but nowhere, not even a single trace of a dog living in Ravenwood. (For my fans out there, don't worry I probably will still make one after I finish Lost Memory) The dog should have been there. I understand if there was training problems or maybe a dog was expensive or something, but there should have been a news article saying, "Beautiful Creatures Cast tries to get dog in movie, but too much money," to show they at least tried. Boo reminded me of my dog (funny cause my dog had one blue eye and one grey eye, husky and golden retriever mix, which reminded me of Lena) and I miss him a lot.
I give this movie an 8 because the actors were just perfect and they demanded your attention. They also adapted to the changes very well. I actually liked the Marian/Amma thing; Viola Davis portrayed Amma as I saw her in the Fourth book, which showed a softer side of Amma and it was cool. The scenes were all in weird time orders, but I was fine with that. And I was even cool with the Macon-being-in-Ethan's room scene although I wish they talked longer and wish they mentioned something about Incubuses cause it was confusing to know what type of creature Macon was in the movie.
Thoughts, Comments, Dislikes, Reviews for this Review are welcome and I will be resuming Lost Memory in a few days. Taking a short break, but I will be back on track!