Strangely boring

Rating: 4/10 (5 April 2017)

*****Spoiler Alert *****
So I went to see Beauty and the Beast as the film I wanted to see had juuuuuuust started and I don't like to miss even 30 seconds of a film.
I've only ever seen the original cartoon once when it came out, however many years ago, so don't remember it that well.
This film looks beautiful, the sets and locations are wonderful, but it does;t look nearly as good as Cinderella funnily enough. For me it all look far too fake and yes I know it's a musical and that's not real, but I was constantly aware that I was watching a film, rather than getting into the film.
I found the whole film strangely boring, I was looking at my watch, wondering why everything took so long to happen and why we had to be told three or four times that Gaston was the baddie, especially where there were no other suitable candidates around.
Emma whats-her-face who plays Belle is terribly terribly dull, and really doesn't do much of the acting, which is a shame as she has been good as a supporting actress before, and maybe this is too much?
The Beast looks silly, and does't quite work as a beast. too much CGI or not enough one of the two.
Kevin Kline is excellent, as is Mr candle-stick and Fat-clock. But Emma Thompson set my teeth on edge as the 'east-end' common-as-much Mrs Potts. Too much of the acting thing here.
The songs are all exactly the same as before and I would have though someone with a bit of vision might have jazzed them up a bit.
The kids in the cinema seemed to love it but I just felt it was desperately un-imaginative. Give me Kong: Skull Island any day.