Synopsis
A supernatural love story set in the South, “Beautiful Creatures” tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Englert), a mysterious new girl. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.
Director Richard LaGravense puts together a quick, yet shallow film about two lost lovers trying to find each other in a world that wants to keep them apart. Think of it as some warped Romeo & Juliet story. Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) is a southern boy, who has grown up in the city of Gatlin his entire life. Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) is an outsider that has moved from town to town and school to school. When the two lost souls meet, it’s apparent that they want to be together. Sadly, Ethan’s pressure to be a good Christian (ha) and Lena’s pressure from Macon (Jeremy Irons), keeps them apart. Ethan’s destiny lies with Lena, but Lena’s destiny has yet to be determined, although it will when she turns 16. Lena is raised by a group called the ‘Casters’, which are magically driven folk. When she turns the age of 16 she will either fall into the category of good, or in the category of evil. Fearing that the Ethan will sway her one way or another, the groups tug at her try to shun him away. And we all know what ‘shunned’ young love brings, right?
On the surface, the book to translation to film is certainly solid. They pack the first book into a 124 minute movie. Much like typical book to onscreen, details are left out. For example, you don’t really get to know the town of Gatlin that much. You don’t understand why the community is so driven to Christianity. Even more so, we don’t get a proper introduction to Macon and a full explanation (at least a deep one) of why Lena is so important to everyone. Finally, we don’t fully understand the antagonist in the film. You could guess why they’re driven for Lena to turn bad, but you don’t fully say ‘Hey! Those folks are pretty horrible’. There are some other details left out of the film that could have made it better, but ultimately the consistent flow to the film is that of a set of rocky rapids of poorly thrown together details. You need at least three hours for this story to fully bloom, but it just doesn’t get there. What you get is better than say a Twilight to film translation, but not by much.
I’m also divided on the acting. I felt like the lead characters were very well represented, and also believable in terms of who they are underneath. I enjoyed the quirky, southernness of Alden Ehrenreich, as he didn’t overact the southern mannerism as opposed to pretty much the rest of his Gatlin cohorts (note to whoever is listening — bring down the southern accents a bit and lay off the enormous Christianity). Alice Englert was also enjoyable to watch, as she played a perfectly confused young lady, who was just trying to keep it together. Also, kudos need to go to Jeremy Irons as Macon. Irons, as he is in all his films, really knocks it out of the ballpark. It’s sad that the English-born actor had the best southern draw. He did a damn fine job as his role as Macon Ravenwood.
As for the rest of the crew, Emma Thompson really didn’t fit the role of antagonist. She was vicious, nor in the slightest way evil. Her cohort, Emmy Rossum (as Ridley Duchannes — the evil version of Lena) felt like a waste. She was in, out and gone before even remotely establishing herself as a person of terribleness. A little miscast and misused pair of people for the baddies.
Anyway, Beautiful Creatures isn’t a terrible film by any means, but it does feel a bit empty in some areas, jumpy in others, and sometimes just what the doctor ordered. I think that if Warner Brothers is going to commit itself to making more of the books then they have to hire proper screenwriters and a solid director to right this ship. This could be their next mini-Harry Potter, if they wanted it to be. As it is right now, it still needs some work.
Shifting gears a bit, let’s talk about the Blu-ray.
One of the more prettier portions of this film is the HD transfer. Warner Home Video delivered a solid HD transfer, but not perfect. You’ll find some really gorgeous moments when the camera is moved to exterior shots with the skies in the frame. Some of the locations really did well in terms of crisp and clean details. You get a nice variety of colors (yellow, reds and greens) with most blue tint added into them for atmosphere. There are times where you will find some graininess creeping into the shot, mostly in sunny/shadowy scenes, but for the most part the picture is pretty clean (no color banding at all).
As for the audio, you get it delivered to you in DTS-HD 5.1, and the aspect ratio comes in 2.4:1.
Finally, here is what you’re looking at in terms of features:
· Book to Screen
· The Casters
· Between Two Worlds
· Forbidden Romance
· Alternate Worlds
· Beautiful Creatures: Designing the Costumes
· ICONS by Margaret Stohl (Book Trailer)
· Deleted Scenes
· Theatrical Trailers
You may want to watch the special features before you watch the film. They provide some much needed extra details that fill in the gaps that the screenplay leaves. This is a solid amount of material for a Blu-ray release, and it compliments the movie perfectly.
“Beautiful Creatures ” available on Blu-ray Combo pack, DVD and Digital Download 5/21