A brilliant revisit to a beautiful tale from our childhoods

Rating: 8/10 (7 April 2017)

I didn't have any expectations for this film due to the overwhelming disappointment I felt with the previous live action adaptations of Cinderella and The Jungle Book. It was due to this that I didn't expect to like this film. I was, however, pleasantly surprised.
For a start, this film fixes nonsensical aspects of the original which was a fantastic starting point – the original was never perfect so it made sense to remake it in order to fix these imperfections. The entire story makes more sense with the prince no longer being an eleven-year-old when cursed; there being an explained reason for the servants also being cursed; the fact that no one remembers the castle's existence; etc. There was also a more solid reason for the prince being cursed since the audience didn't really see much justification in the original as there were few examples of his selfishness.
The curse also comes across as more dark with the servants all slowly losing their humanity as time goes on and being rendered inanimate objects by the time all the petals have fallen. This introduction of actual consequences gives an insight to the desperation of the cursed characters as we can see how this factor leaks into their actions as motivation, giving them more depth. It also has an emotional impact on the audience when they resign themselves to their fate at the end of the film. It also evokes empathy for the Beast who not only has his own fate on his hands but the fate of everyone else in the castle – this makes his bitterness and anger towards the beginning of the film even more understandable due to guilt rather than just self-hate due to his appearance as in the original. The original used this aspect to show that Belle was making the Beast a better person, teaching him to stop caring for his looks and be kind, but I still preferred the remake here. Each film shows a different perspective of Beast and his motivations (the same can be said for the servants) which is something I love.
Another great aspect would be the changes made to characters. Unlike the original, there isn't a single character who I felt was pointless or underdeveloped. For example, Maurice who was portrayed as merely a bumbling inventor in the animation had far more depth and didn't act like an idiot. I could also see the bond between him and Belle better. Gaston also changed for the better, seeming more like an actual villain. He was truly driven by his motivations whereas he didn't seem particularly so in the original so I was never truly convinced of him as an evil character. Other than this, he actually did come across as evil due to his actions more so than the original. As for Belle, I enjoyed her character more as well as the effort they put into her backstory. I love how they made her an inventor and showed she was a truly capable and intelligent woman being held back by society at the time.
The most brilliant change to characters, however, was to LeFou. He was so much better than in the original for the fact he actually had a trait other than just being Gaston's sidekick and you could understand the motivations behind his actions also. I love how LeFou doesn't just follow along with what Gaston says with seemingly no reason and has an actual mind of his own in that he has morals and feels guilty for what he helped Gaston do to Maurice. The fact that LeFou seems to be in love with Gaston gives the audience a whole new level of understanding for his character as it's clear he is torn between what he believes is right and keeping the man he loves content and it shows he isn't simply an evil character like in the animation but a human being who is swayed by his emotions. The film also allowed his character redemption because, in the end, he was being used and manipulated by Gaston through his feelings for him which caused him to be 'evil'. I like the parallels which can be drawn between the Beast's curse and LeFou's love for Gaston – both made them 'monsters' but there is more to them than simply what is shown on the surface; there is good to them.
What I liked most about this film is how it remained faithful to the original, but different in all the best ways. Other than this, the new music was absolutely beautiful and somewhat reminded me of The Phantom of the Opera which I loved.
Some scenes just didn't need to exist though such as where Belle visits Paris – I understand what they were trying to do, but that information could have been delivered differently as the scene just feels out of place (as much as I love the song). The CGI was also somewhat odd and could have been done better.
You'd think they'd be able to hear how bad the tuning is on many of the songs. Watson's vocals were overly auto-tuned as if they were trying to make her sound more like the original Belle and couldn't. Almost every character had their vocals overly tuned at some point in the soundtrack rendering it difficult to listen to. Some tracks are done well, but the mixing and tuning in general just... leaves a lot to be desired. The vocal layering wasn't always mixed well either so it was difficult to hear each part.
As for Watson, she was the weakest link. She had some scenes where she was amazing and other scenes where she just seemed empty in her words and actions, like she didn't truly believe them herself. I wish they had cast a stronger actress and singer for this role since I felt there was something missing from her performance.