Teenager Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) is obsessed with his urge to finish high school and go on to college in order to leave behind the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina behind, until a mysterious girl begins to inhabit his dreams. When he meets Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert), a newcomer who has just enrolled in his school, Ethan knows she is the girl in his dreams. Lena is rejected by the rest of her classmates for being the granddaughter of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), whom the town's superstitious residents consider to be a devil-worshiper. But Ethan gives her a ride anyway and they fall in love. Lena reveals to her new boyfriend that she is a witch, and that on her sixteenth birthday she will be claimed by either the forces of light or of darkness. She will remain in the light, but only if she does not remain in love with Ethan. To make matters worse, her evil mother, Sarafine, is casting spells to push Lena to the dark side. Ethan joins her in a search to find a magic spell to save their doomed love. Will the lovers succeed?
Based on the young adult novel of the same name by Kami Garcia & Margaret Stohl. Beautiful Creatures actually manages to avoid becoming a Twilight rip-off by giving you a romance that the audience can actually believe in. Another thing that helps to the film's favor is the actors are strong and are given material that is presentable something Twilight doesn't have. You better have something presentable when Emma Thompson is in your cast and who does steal the show as Mavis Lincoln a overly religious nut job and the film's main villain (spoiler alert) Sarafine (which would have been a nit twist if it wasn't in the trailer). She can be a wee bit cheesy and over-the-top but that's just apart of the film's charm.
The film doesn't takes it self seriously (for god sake you have Margo Martindale walking around with a live peacock in one scene) and it works really well. Richard LaGravenese (the director and screenwriter) understands that this is premise sounds ridiculous and doesn't give this a sense of self importance that's force upon us with other Y.A. adaptation (Mortal Instruments). Which is quite refreshing in today's Y.A. adaptations and another thing that's also refreshing, "!NO FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLE BULLSHIT!". Instead we get Ethan & Lena a couple that put's Edward & Bella to shame and female heroine that doesn't make you want to rip your own eye balls out.
What makes Lena a strong female heroine is a scene of sacrifice something you never got with Twilight. I'm going to try hard to explain what happens without spoiling the final act of the film. But Lena is in a situation were a love one has to die to lift a curse and Lena finds away to make sure this person doesn't die but that person has no idea who Lena is. And I liked that, and it works because you believe in the relationship and you believe it's coming from an honest place within not just Lena, Ethan as well. I know i'm overly praising this film but my biggest problem with the film is Ridley (Emmy Rossum). Not because the character is bad (she quite interesting actually), she's just given nothing to do which is a real shame because I do like Emmy Rossum and she's trying really hard with what she's given but I wish their was more.
Aside from Rossum and some cheesy effects, Beautiful Creatures is really solid. To some this might come off as a Twilight rip-off (the trailers sells this as such). Which is a real shame because the film is smart and has enough clever wit too it to make raise above Twilight rip-off status and be eons better than Twilight. Also, "!NO FUCKING LOVE TRIANGLE BULLSHIT!".
Grade Rating: B+
No comments:
Post a Comment