Save some money. Watch the animated version.

Rating: 5/10 (19 March 2017)

Call me a poor sport or a fun killer or someone who takes movies too seriously or even a film critic, but as a movie-goer I found this live-action remake to be completely unnecessary and all together forgettable, just like that 2015 live-action Disney adaption of Cinderella. Remember that one?...I didn't think so.
Synopsis: This "tale as old as time" (adapted from Disney's 1991 animated Beauty and the Beast) once again tells the story of a vain prince who is turned into a hideous beast, until he can find a young girl who is able to see his inner beauty and fall in love with him. This "Beauty and the Beast" does have some entertaining moments of its own creation, mainly when Cogsworth and Lumiere (played to perfection by Ian McKellen and Ewan McGregor) take center stage. But that's about all. Basically everything else I enjoyed about this movie was plucked directly from the 1991 animated version; a version which is arguably one of the greatest Disney films/musicals ever made. Now while I usually hate when people compare remakes to their originals, since when critiquing a film you really want to take that singular film experience and analyze it in as much of a "bubble" as humanly possible, in regards to Disney's live-action "Beauty and the Beast", this is simply impossible since it's pretty much a 80-90% shot for shot remake (obviously there are going to be things that must be altered when adapting straight from animation, i.e. you can't possibly show Luke Evans who plays Gaston, eating five dozen eggs unless you want him dead). The main alterations being: the live-action element (or course) the addition of a few new and completely forgettable songs and (spoiler alert) LeFou (played by Josh Gad) is gay now, which probably would have been seen as a more progressive move by Disney if he'd been in more than four scenes.
Bill Condon's direction was serviceable, highlighted only by the set design and choreography during the musical numbers, but the CGI was cartoonish to the point of sloppy at times. As for the other performances, Emma Watson as Belle was fine (undoubtedly this would've been my very same critique if she'd starred in "La La Land") and so was Evans as Gaston. And even though as an actor Dan Stevens, who plays the Beast, usually annoys me because I believe his acting to be 99% facial expression, this facial recognition based CGI character seemed to suit him quite well.
Final Thought: I'm still giving this movie a minimal recommendation only because it's not a bad film. As I said, there are entertaining moments, and the songs brought over from the 1991 version are always a pleasure to hear. But if you're going to pay money and take your kids to see "Beauty and the Beast", why not just stay home and watch the better version?