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Beautiful Creatures has a simple plot that is easy to follow. Its the usual 'boy meets girl, falls in love and fights to overcome every obstacle that threatened to keep them apart' plot-line. Its director, Richard LaGravenese was also no stranger to romantic or fantasy films with his prior involvements in Water for Elephants, The Chronicles of Narnia and P.S., I Love You, which he also directed. The film was enjoyable, but rather forgettable. I personally have not read the book, but the film failed to capture my interest like how Hunger Games, Twilight or Harry Potter did which prompted me to read their books.
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It all began on a rainy Thursday evening. I arrived at the cinema a little later than planned, so I rushed to my seat. After I took my seat, I thought I was in the wrong hall because I saw Halle Berry on the screen. My initial thought was "I don't remember reading that Halle Berry was cast in the Beautiful Creatures." By a happy mistake, the cinema was playing the wrong film - they were screening Cloud Atlas instead. So I sat happily, waiting for the real movie to start. Yay! I didn't miss the beginning after all. I always hated missing the starting of a film, because it would take a lot more effort to link everything together at the end.
But seriously, this was the second time in two weeks that the cinema, which shall remain nameless, messed up its screenings. A week before, I decided to catch a Chinese film called The Journey to the West, which was a HUGE mistake by the way. I wasn't late this time, but when I got into the hall, it had already started. I thought maybe they skipped the advertisements and headed straight to the movie. Needless to point out that I was completely clueless throughout the film. The movie ended less than an hour later, and I was like "isn't this movie supposed to be much longer?". That's when I realised the cinema played the movie waaaay ahead of schedule. The funny thing was, no one realised it or did anything about it. So, I'm not going to review that one, its not even worth reviewing anyway.
So, enough ranting. Let's get down to business. Malaysian cinemas sort of went on break for a week or two in conjunction with Chinese New Year. I don't mean that they were closed, but there weren't any decent movie releases then, so I decided to take the week off. This week, the cinemas tried to play catch up by releasing a hell load of films, but most of them have already been screened elsewhere like Lincoln and Flight. Beautiful Creatures was only released a week ago in the US, so this review isn't too outdated, I suppose.
Once again, let's start things off with a little introduction to the film.
Beautiful Creatures
Language: English with Southern Accent
Run Time: 124 minutes // 2 hours 4 minutes
Genre: Drama, Fantasy, Romance
Rating: 'PG13' (Malaysia) // 'PG-13' (USA)
Director: Richard LaGravenese
Starring: Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum and cast (See the elaborated list of cast members below)
Date-of-Release: 21 February 2013 (Malaysia) // 14 February 2013 (USA)
What is it about?
The film is based on an American young adult novel written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Set in a remote town named Gatlin of South Carolina, young Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) aspired to leave the small town and religious townspeople someday. He had been waiting for something different and exciting to happen all his life. His prayers were soon answered by the arrival of Lena Duchannes, niece to a descendent of the founders of Gatlin, who transferred to the same school as him. Ethan was instantly captivated by the mysterious girl, but he did not realise just how mysterious she was. Follow Ethan as he discovered the secrets of Lena and her family.
Tagline: Dark secrets will come to light.
(Read on for Beautiful Creatures review)
