Slightly Nostalgic & Incredibly Flat.

Rating: 6/10 (29 March 2017)

Firstly, can I suggest that perhaps it would have been better had they strayed away from a classic remake, but instead, had created a comedic prequel featuring Gaston and LeFou since they were the real stars of this movie? It is sort of nostalgic- I'll give it that. And I'm not even too mad at the casting choices for any of the main roles. My main concern is with SUCH a big budget for this and after the success of the live-action Jungle Book-- how could a classic like this be given such bad treatment? The CGI was honestly horrendous. I felt it difficult to call this live-action when everything that surrounded the human characters seemed like a really bad theatre set- they didn't even feel like they're in a small, French town. If you're going to really push the CGI route- go full throttle. Don't use it on places that you need it the least- like the Beast's face for example. I'm familiar with Dan Stevens and I could see some of the facial remarks and quirks were him- but that's it. Otherwise, it could have been anyone. It looked like Belle was speaking to a green screen throughout the entire movie. I also didn't love Lumiere's Liberace-esque redesign. But overall- Lumiere and Cogsworth were enjoyable for the most part and Be Our Guest was BY FAR the saving grace as far as the musical numbers were concerned.
If they wanted to do BATB in modern times or re-imagine it- go with it. Go that route. But take it all the way there. I don't think it was a good idea to try and keep the script the same in literally 90% of the movie only to add in a handful of unnecessary extra songs (which weren't actually any good- especially Beast's), the back story of Belle's mom which really did not add anything special to the story and the need to alter the ending by adding in the 'hideous wench' character. What was the point of that? Stick to the original or reinvent it. I didn't mine the slight addition of insinuated gayness of LeFou- I thought it was quite entertaining and very Waylon Smithers/Mr. Burns-esque. I don't understand the uproar, quite frankly. Besides- it's 2017. Can people finally just stop? Being gay isn't a new phenomenon, folks. Just ask Napoleon.
The classic songs felt incredibly flat for me- especially Bonjour. I agree with another review that I didn't understand nor particularly like the odd delays in the song- what was the point? And also, she just didn't really seem to sing with much effort. I like Emma as an actress in most scenarios (I try to forget that she did Bling Ring- arg) but it felt very much like Emma playing the role of Belle in a theatre production- I didn't feel as though she really embodied the character in any way. The stand outs- by far- were Luke Evans and Josh Gad. I don't think they could have done better casting for those roles no matter if you enjoyed the characters or not.
Another thing that felt incredibly dull to me was the colors. I remember seeing the cartoon version of Belle in her glowing, golden dress that was SO beautiful and well-constructed that it honestly just made Emma Watson seem like she was wrapped up in her grandmother's curtains. Like, who did that? If you're going to do ANYTHING the service that it deserves- you can't lack on Belle's dress and that entire Beauty & the Beast dance sequence. It was flat. Where were the colours and the incredible camera angles? I remember one specific "camera shot" that swirled around them in the Disney cartoon version where you could also see the rest of the ballroom- I still feel goosebumps. One of the most beautiful scenes I've ever seen.
And lastly- Mrs. Potts' animation was just plain scary to me.
That is all.
Twitter: @steacyc