For those of us who can’t afford to go to the movies, or just chose not to because of how expensive it is, I have decided to review the films that are On Demand (Verizon Fios is my provider) for the readers of Hashtag Studios. That way, when you sit down at home and order a movie, you know what you’re paying for.
A few days ago I watched Beautiful Creatures. Being a lover of any kind of fantasy story, I thought I would love this movie. I was sadly disappointed.
Beautiful Creatures is about a young man named Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich), who is a jock, a lover of poetry, and desperate to escape his home town. He has been dreaming about a young woman and when he meets Lena (Alice Englert), the new girl at school, he notices that she has a strong resemblance to the girl in his dreams. She comes from a family of Casters (“witch,” is an offensive word as stated in the film), and on the day she turns 16 she’ll be ”claimed,” either by the light side or (more likely, due to a family curse) the dark side; meaning she will either be good or evil.
The dialogue in this film was a little awkward and didn’t make a lot of sense. For example, in the beginning of the movie, Alden (who narrates the film) says that his town is so small that the movie theater doesn’t get movies until they are already out on dvd; when they do get them, they get the titles wrong. Later he finds out that Lena has not seen the film Titanic to which he replies with, “Wow, you really are from out of town.” Maybe I’m just missing something, but for a town that doesn’t prioritize its movie theater, wouldn’t this be normal.
Furthermore, there is supposed to be a strong familial connection between Lena and Ethan; this is significant to their relationship. However, the story only mentions the character’s ancestors once and, what should be an important detail involving Lena’s father and Ethan’s mother, is also only mentioned once as well. These two details result in a weak connection between the two leads and a not so believable love story.
Personally, I would have liked to watch the story of Lena’s and Ethan’s ancestors. In my opinion, that would have been a bit more interesting.