Patty's Pick: 'Beautiful Creatures' Leaves You Spellbound & Wanting More!
I'm not entirely sure how I feel about the recent resurgence of supernatural teen flicks. I enjoyed Harry Potter just as much as the next person and I only watched the Twilight series just to be in the know - although, to be honest, I kind of dug the last movie! That said, I saw the movie Beautiful Creatures this past weekend out of curiosity and at my friends' urging. I was a little afraid it was going to TRY to be Twilight 2.0... and luckily, I was wrong!
There are some definite similarities: it's based on a book series, there are two teens who are in love and can't be together because, as El Rich says, "of reasons" and it's dark and there's powers at bay, etc . But that's where the similarities end!
Beautiful Creatures is set in the South and is a movie about a caster (translation: a witch) named Lena (Alice Englert) who will find out her "Am-I-a-Good-Witch-or-Bad-Witch?" destiny upon her 16th birthday... and the small-town guy named Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) who falls in love with her. While it sounds like a cliched carbon copy of Twilight, the movie gets it right. For one, the girl is the one with the power, literally and figuratively. Lena stands her ground, and while it's Ethan who opens the movie, Lena OWNS it. Secondly, the characters actually speak like normal teens, with even a few current pop culture jabs here and there!
While the two leads are newbies, there's some serious star-power in the cast: Viola Davis nails it once again as Ethan's housekeeper; Emmy Rossum shows off her nasty and sassy side as Lena's dark witch cousin; and Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson steal the show as Lena's uncle and mother.
My gripe: the beginning went a little too fast for me. The background of the characters was a little too rushed, but it paved the way for the love story between Ethan and Lena... and it's really hard to hate on them! One of my favorite things about the movie? Since I didn't read the books that they're based on, the ending REALLY threw me off - the ending was the perfect twist!
*Patty's Pick: 3.5/5 stars
Beautiful Creatures is currently out in theaters.
Will you be watching Beautiful Creatures?
