Beautiful Creatures

Plot synopsis:
In Gatlin, South Carolina, Ethan Wate awakens from a recurring dream of a girl he does not know. In voice-over narration, he describes his enjoyment of reading banned books, his despair of his small-town existence, and his dreams of leaving Gatlin for college. Arriving for his first day of junior year, Ethan notices newcomer Lena Duchannes, who resembles the girl he has been dreaming about. The other students do not take kindly to her and spread gossip regarding Lena's reclusive uncle, Macon Ravenwood, and suggest that her family includes devil worshippers. Overhearing these whispers, Lena tenses, and the classroom windows shatter, amplifying the fears and suspicions of the class and the townspeople at large that she is a witch.
On a drive home, Ethan nearly runs over Lena, whose car has broken down. He gives her a ride home, and the two bond over their shared love of poetry and having both lost their mothers. Ethan drops Lena off but later finds a locket and returns to the mansion to give it to her as a present. Touching the locket triggers a shared flashback to the American Civil War, after which Ethan awakens at his home. Macon disapproves of their love and fondness of each other, and conspires with Ethan's family friend, Amma, to keep the two separated. Ethan continues to pursue Lena until she confesses that she and her family are "casters" capable of performing magical spells. On her sixteenth birthday, Lena's true nature will steer her towards either the light or the dark; Lena fears the latter, as it entails being consumed by evil and hurting those she loves. Ethan and her family insist she is responsible for her own choices and reassure her that she is a good person.
Matters are complicated by the arrival of two immensely powerful dark casters who aim to push Lena to the dark: Ridley, Lena's provocative cousin and childhood friend, who is a siren, a caster that can make any mortal obey her command telepathically and as well as Lena's mother Sarafine, who has possessed Mrs. Lincoln, the mother of Ethan's friend Link. In a local church, the townspeople have gathered around to complete a petition to expel Lena from school. Then, Macon arrives and Sarafine confronts him. She foresees that Lena will become an even more powerful caster, since the moon will bring out more energy and will be considered as the most powerful solstice and intends for Lena to use her newfound power to purge the Earth of humans, leaving casters to rule in their wake. Lena and Ethan use the locket to re-experience the whole flashback at a movie theater, while on a date, which reveals their ancestors, caster Genevieve Duchannes and mortal Confederate soldier Ethan Carter Wate were in love. Ethan Carter was shot in battle, and Genevieve revived him using a forbidden spell that caused her to go dark, kill her one true love and curse all the Duchannes family's women into going dark. This mortifies Lena and she leaves the theater in fear. They consult with Amma, who is a seer/keeper of a caster library beneath the town library. The most ancient of these books, the Book of Moons, reveals the secret to undoing the curse: someone Lena loves has to die. Unwilling to take Ethan's life, Lena has a final moment together with Ethan in which she makes it snow and then erases all his memories of their time together.
Ridley seduces Link and gives him a bullet to use in an upcoming Civil War reenactment of the Battle of Honey Hill which will take place on Lena's birthday. During the reenactment, Link and Ethan agree to "kill" each other so they can ditch the reenactment. While at the ceremony for her sixteenth birthday, Lena feels the shock of the curse being broken and runs off to Ethan, clutching his dying body as Ridley and Sarafine encourage her to surrender to grief and accept the dark. Lena lashes out in anger, sending lightning strikes and a huge twister through the crowd of reenactors and seemingly kills everyone until Ethan's body transforms into Macon, who had previously disguised himself as Ethan to become the needed sacrifice to lift the curse and reveals that he promised Ethan's mother to keep her son alive. His dying words encourage Lena to "claim yourself"; she then causes the moon to disappear, so it cannot claim her for the dark. Lena allows Ridley to flee and pulls Sarafine from Mrs. Lincoln's body, using her power to seal Sarafine's spirit away in the form of branches
Six months later, a still-amnesiac Ethan stops by the library to visit Amma before leaving for an NYU college tour with Link. He apologizes to Lena for not having gotten to know her during their time in Gatlin. When he inquires if a "banned book" by Charles Bukowski (which she had shared with him when they first met) is any good, Lena asks him to define good (the same reply she gave the first time he asked) and presents the book to him as a "getting out of Gatlin present". As Link drives, to visit his mother at the insane asylum, after being freed from Sarafine's possession, before leaving to NYU, Ethan reads a passage in the book that he had earlier associated with Lena, while Lena is revealed in the caster library to be a half light/dark caster, as one of her eyes turns a different color, shown the same way her cousin has them. As Link and Ethan drive past the town line, Ethan glimpses the town's burned exit sign and has a moment of realization. The car skids to a halt; Ethan gets out of the car and yells Lena's name; she hears his call and is freed of her dark side before the screen fades to black.

Tags: comedy, paranormal, flashback, good versus evil, psychedelic, romantic, melodrama, suspenseful

Review:
The story has an original premise in that's it has a fairly familiar ideas (witches and magic - one of the oldest subjects for stories - strange kid moves into town and changes everything, secrets about the town are unveiled etc.) but the focus is on how the caster girl's powers affect her and her feelings of being outcast all her life, and the story revolves around a teen romance with a twist.I went to see the film expecting to follow Lena, the caster girl who is struggling with the powers of light and dark inside her, but was (pleasantly) surprised to see the story was generally told from the point of view of her love interest Ethan, the 'normal' boy who falls for the outsider when everyone else shuns her.
There is conflict between the light and dark casters, as well as these elements within the characters, fighting for supremacy - danger and fear run through the film, and you will be surprised more than once.Personally I found this film really entertaining, though I understand many fans are unhappy with the adaptation and I'm considering reading the books myself.
Beautiful Creatures has a big Romeo and Juliet thing going on, but at the same time, there's mysteries, prophesies, hypocrisy, Southern politics, Civil War history, religion, death, evil forces, and all sorts of madness making for quite an interesting story (with some very witty and sarcastic dialogue to put a cherry on top).
If he hadn't made that change, the movie would have dragged on for three hours as oppose to rapping itself up nicely at two.I thought the acting was good as well, and Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert had nice chemistry as Ethan and Lena.
I watched this movie and loved the story and will admit even got sad/happy at points following the characters growth and change in the movie.
I had not read the book prior to watching this but am now eager to do so.Regardless, BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is vividly filmed with good performances by Alice Englert, Alden Ehrenreich, Emmy Rossum, Rachel Brosnahan, and just about everyone else.
BEAUTIFUL CREATURES also walks the thin horror-comedy line most admirably.On the dimmer end of things, the whole texture of the film is a little slow and murky, and it would probably have been a little better with a few minutes cut here and there..
The word on the street is that this is the expected successor after the conclusion of the Twilight film franchise, having some parallels in its tale that deals with the supernatural, and love between a being of higher power and that of an ordinary human except for the reversal of genders, and set in a schooling environment of an idyllic small town where people know just about everyone else.
It's also based on a successful series of novels by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, so it's everyone's bet just how this first installment would perform that would determine its future as a potential film franchise, where many other potentials have fallen after its initial start - The Dark is Rising, The Golden Compass, and I am Number Four, to name but a few in this genre.Beautiful Creatures starts off rather beautifully, with awesome visuals that would set to engage and create that visual feast for the eyes, crafting a mystery from the onset in the dreams of protagonist Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich), who see an ominous sequence of events, only to not see who that raven haired female is due to a deliberate obscuring by her long tresses.
There's plenty of cooing between the love birds here as they spend time together like any teenager in love, if not researching with Amma (Viola Davis), who is a seer of the town, and an ally in Lena's identity crisis.If I had to give this film its due credit, it will be how it set up the hook for that emotional resonance in the final scene.
Emma Thompson as Serafine sometimes overacts, but by golly was she enjoyable; Emmy Rossum did a nice job as the foxy Ridley, Viola Davis did very good as Amma and Jeremy Irons (the famous actor from The Lion King, Eragon, etc.) did a fantastic job as the menacing and edgy Macon Ravenwood.
Alden Enrenreich did an amazing job as the charismatic Ethan Wate while Alice Englert is a perfect Lena Duchannes, thus making them a much likable duo than Bella and Edward from Twilight.Overall, I have yet to read the book it was based on and I understood all the hatred this flick had, but despite it's own problems, Beautiful Creatures is a pretty good fantasy romance flick that is way better than the Twilight movies and I think would be recommended to those who haven't seen it yet..
Typical fantasy romance film plot, but it is fun to watch.I liked the fact that the story occurred in an isolated town and the rest of the world being completely oblivious to the existence of witches.
I haven't read the books, so this is not based on how good or poor the adaptation is...just how purely awful the movie is.
It had a good story and a fair amount of interesting special effects a typical teen love story and a decent ending that does leave room for a second movie.
More than just another teen supernatural romance set in a small town, it is more accurately a Romeo- and-Juliet love story told against a Southern Gothic backdrop complete with witches (or 'casters' as they prefer to call themselves here), enchantments, spirits and some good ol' family mystery.Whereas the 'Twilight' films had been too timid to please the fanbase built on the Stephanie Meyer books, writer/ director Richard LaGravenese shows little hesitation in compressing and condensing both dialogue and characters in order that his film boast the aesthetics of a motion picture – as opposed to a visual representation of the book.
There where its denizens love their Civil-war re-enactments ("They keep re-enacting the Civil War like it's gonna come out different," says Ethan), our protagonist dreams of the day when he gets to uproot himself from the town – although more recently, he has had a different kind of dream, where a girl appears as if in a Civil War-era period along with a lone tree set against a plain meadow.When Lena turns up one day in his high school, Ethan immediately recognises her as the girl of his dreams, and despite the ostracision of his fellow Bible-thumping classmates who see her and her Ravenwood family clan as devil-worshippers, falls hard and fast for Lena.
Turns out that the superstitious townsfolk aren't wrong – Lena belongs to a long line of Ravenwood 'casters', and will either be claimed by the darkness or the light depending on the true inclinations of her soul.Those not familiar with the novel will be surprised at the amount of material that LaGravenese has to cram within the two-hour duration of the movie, including but not limited to the proclivities of Lena's family members – namely, her uncle Macon (Jeremy Irons), vampy cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum), and her very mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson) – as well as an age-old curse that binds the fates of the Wate family with that of the Ravenwood.
Even so, there will be those who feel that LaGravenese had been ruthless in dropping some of the characters from the book, though as a neophyte to the story, we can reassure you that it all makes for a much tighter and ultimately engaging film.It is to LaGravanese's credit that the movie never feels as heavy as its source material.
And at the heart of it all, the romance between Ethan and Lena never feels hackneyed, as LaGravenese forgoes sappy proclamations of love with sharp snappy lines packed with plenty of pop-culture references (did you know there was a Finale Destination 6?).The veteran filmmaker also proves to have a keen eye for casting, with none of the actors – young or old – hitting a wrong note with their respective characters.
The same can be said of Englert, daughter of filmmaker Jane Campion, who effuses spark and spunk as Lena and shares an effortlessly winning chemistry with Ehrenreich as they relate as two teenagers who find their soulmates in each other.But if all that adolescent love seems too lightweight to you, the presence of Irons, Thompson and Viola Davis should be more than enough to lend the movie the gravity you are looking for.
In particular, Irons brings class and elegance to the picture as the debonair uncle with edge and menace, while Thompson gleefully relishes the chance to camp it up as both the town's most conservative church lady and the most fearsome dark-caster.And with 'Beautiful Creatures', LaGravenese demonstrates how it is possible for a movie to shrug off the limitations of its word-bound source material and become something that can be enjoyed by more than just its built-in fanbase.
Those open for a more elemental retelling of the mythology, as well as those who have no clue what 'Beautiful Creatures' this movie purports to contain, will find that this blend of supernatural teenage romance and Southern Gothic mystery is a potent brew that is hip, witty, amusing, romantic and thrilling all at the same time..
Of COURSE film adaptations are always different and the "books are always better" but it was like the screen writer & director didn't bother to read the books or even the cliff notes version.
Beautiful Creatures is another film adaptation of a novel for adolescents that is akin to The Twilight Saga, The Hunger Games, Warm Bodies, etc., where a world with humans falling in love with supernatural beings/monsters, a romance without freedom, and some random rules about their kind or universe.
It features an all star cast that all give great performances.I liked the story, it got a bit Twilight at times, and a bit overboard with becoming good/evil, but I guess they were doing a duality between what humans face through a supernatural narrative.
I cannot see a way of fixing the mistakes made in this movie, so that the story line can be put back on track.Now, if I set the fact that I read the book aside, and try and wipe the slate clean of the fact that I already know what was supposed to happen.
I haven't read the books, but this kept popping up on my recommendations for years until I finally watched it on Netflix today, and I think that this movie got a pretty harsh rating.
I can't tell what I would think of it if I hadn't read the book first, but this is definitely not a good movie.
The ending was nothing like in the book and that is probably because they never planned to make a second movie, which is a good choice in this case.
I really liked the delightful performance of Emmy Rossum as the dark sister of Lena.Overall, Beautiful Creatures is just an okay fantasy film about witches in one of the most backward towns in film history.
Coming from someone who tries to read the books before watching the movie versions of stories, I know the feeling of preferring one medium over the other (usually the book), but Beautiful Creatures is actually pretty balanced: the strengths and weaknesses of the book and movie are basically the same.The weaknesses are that there's a little too much going on, and the world set up is not quite as defined as one would hope.
The casting is superb, the sets and scenery were lovely, and like its book counterpart, it gave me a few laughs too.I'm sure it's easy to write off anything that even remotely resembles "that teen vampire movie", but I find that blacklisting an entire genre would cut me off from some of the sweetest, most optimistic love stories I've ever watched/read.
Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert are charming as the offbeat star-crossed lovers, but it's when a group of old pros - Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson, Eileen Atkins, Margo Martindale - takes the stage that the real fun begins (and a young pro like Emmy Rossum is a delight as well).Due most likely to budgetary constraints, the special effects occasionally come off as a trifle sub-par by Hollywood standards, and there is a whiff of the CW about the whole project from time to time (there's an undeniable scent of "The Vampire Diaries" and even of HBO's "True Blood" here).
Twilight is garbage, teen girl fodder, I'm sure most over the age of 30 would agree, however when you inject a bit of decent darkness into the screenplay and pepper your supporting cast with fabulous performances from 3 Oscar winners, you're bound to end up with something halfway decent and Beautiful Creatures is just that, halfway decent.Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson and Viola Davis steal every scene they're in, specially Thompson.
Watched Beautiful Creatures (2013)with my wife last night and was thoroughly entertained by a marvelous piece of film making that included a blend of young and not so young very fine Actors,sure I don't see this film picking up any "Oscars" however as someone who had not heard of the books and stumbled on the Movie almost by accident we enjoyed this film a great deal,it is always a pleasure to hear that wonderful voice of Jeremy Irons and watch the quirky Emma Thompson, we were also impressed with the younger set IE;Alden Ehrenreich who played a good solid role as our romantic male lead furthermore was also impressed by Alice Englert as our female lead I had not knowingly seen her perform before and was interested to find that she is the daughter of Jane Campion the very fine New Zealand Director sign of good genetics I think.Back to the Film,the basic story was good,the new girl(Alice Englert) at school keeps her distance because of a secret and our Male lead (Alden Ehrenreich)is the romantic forbidden fruit for her, throw in some Magic,a couple of odd rellies and a great interior design job on the "Old Family Mansion" coupled with a great soundtrack by "Thenewno2" and you have a nice entertaining movie with no Bad Language or naked sex scenes and an ending which was OK but might also give you a question.I am surprised a the current IMDb Rating of 6 I believe this was closer to a seven for me and does not deserved to be compared to the Twilight series,in my opinion "Beautiful Creatures" was a better film to watch than some of Twilight films....
I especially like how they chose unknown (well unknown to me) actors to play Ethan and Lena, the choices they made definitely worked because i will now be reading the books.
To sum up, the weakest thing in the movie is the fact that there are already many stories like this one and that some elements are poorly explained and developed while the strongest point is that it entertains and is nice to watch and takes advantage of two unknown young actors.
In conclusion, I recommend "Beautiful creatures" for the fans of the novel and the ones who like movies mixing romance, adventure and fantasy (specially, teenager-girls...).
While she is undeniably great as the sexy and seductive Ridley, she feels like she should be in a completely different film."Beautiful Creatures" starts off good, but once it gets to the meat of the story, it goes downhill from there.
What I got was a long and boring second rate love story between 2 people who did not have much personality or character.Jeremy Irons and Emma Thomson were wasted in this production, sure there were scenes in the movie that they just stole and I know that they were not the main characters but they were so incidental to the film that anyone could have played those parts.The 2 main characters did an OK job but the character development was OK at best, you didn't get any idea of who these people were and what drove them to do what they did.
I like the fantasy realm and the main character's supernatural powers made me want to see this film, even though I had seen the trailer and knew almost nothing about the story, except teenagers falling in love.
Starting out, the movie had me worried initially for two reasons: 1) the boy (Alden Ehrenreich) was the main character, not the girl (Alice Englert) and 2) southern accents.
The effects were good, the cinematography too and the movie somehow made you feel like one of the main characters, whether it was Lena or Ethan I felt a connection with both of them.
Other than that, the acting was horrible by the two main characters, I felt like the boy was "short bus special" and the girl was confused as to whether or not she was actually important to the plot of the movie (don't worry, I feel this way about most of Kristen Stewart's work as well).
This movie is beautifully shot and I loved that it was told from Ethan's perspective (I hadn't read the book so I was surprised for this type of film.) Some of it was corny but the chemistry between the characters was believable.
You think if you like a book enough you want to make a movie out of it, that you don't want to change the story line.
If you are the type of person who loves a good story and see's the silver lining in everything like I do, this movie is for you.
If U liked the book, or movies that make sense - DO NOT WATCH!.
I've given it a 5 because the friend I went to see the movie with (and who hadn't read the book) liked it and because I can't complain about the acting, the costumes, the make-up, the visual details, the way it looked and felt.
Generally:Beautiful Creatures is a good fantasy movie with the necessary love story, magic, special effects and awesome music!