Sadly Over-hyped

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

It’s fine. It's literally the definition of a fine movie. You’ve seen it before, you know every beat and outcome before the characters even do. Only question is how much escapism you’re looking for.

Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town. Beautiful Creatures was another young adult based book turned into a movie that left me quite suprised by how damn good it really was especially Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson were really good. Definitely a movie that i would easily recommend especially if you like science fiction mixed with adventure and romance cause it was really not bad and very fun. (10/10)

RELEASED IN 2013 and directed by Richard LaGravenese, "Beautiful Creatures" chronicles events in a small town in rural South Carolina where a college-minded high schooler (Alden Ehrenreich) becomes infatuated by a mysterious new girl (Jeremy Irons) who recently moved in with her eccentric uncle (Jeremy Irons) at his creepy Antebellum mansion. He learns that they are "casters," immortals with magical powers; and that an evil relative (Emma Thompson) wants Lena for the darkness.The director wrote the script based on the first of four young adult books of "The Caster Chronicles" by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl. Fans of the book, however, say it's one of the most unfaithful book-to-screen adaptions. Since I've never read any of these books this was irrelevant to me.There's nothing wrong with the production as far as sets, costumes, cast, music goes. It cost $60 million and looks it. The Southern Gothic air is to die for and the first act is intriguing. Unfortunately, the tone is semi-campy where several of the characters are overly cartoonish. It's reminiscent of comic booky Stephen King flicks (e.g. "Silver Bullet" and "Needful Things"), but a notch or two more exaggerated.The first half is also encumbered by an overtly anti-Christian slant. I don't have a problem with movies that depict the evils of fundamentalist legalism, like in "The Mist" (2007), but here the stereotypes are so overdone they don't ring true, not to mention there's no positive depiction of believers to compare with the negative ones (like in "The Mist"). According to this movie, ALL Christians are hateful, rash, judgmental, condemning bigots. Lazy writers love stereotypes because they don't have to write interesting complex characters.Take Lena's first day at school where two girls automatically assume she's "satanic" merely because she lives at the eerie plantation; they then proceed to openly pray for her. It's so overdone, cartoony and eye-rolling it takes the viewer right out of the movie. This doesn't even reflect reality in the modern world anyway: Even in a backwater town in the USA it's more likely that a devout Christian would be persecuted by mocking unbelievers and nominal Christians rather than vice versa. Another thoroughly unrealistic element is how all the top community leaders are ee-vil fundies who GO TO THE SAME CHUCH. Why Sure!To be fair, the second half halfheartedly tries to make up for this by briefly revealing a more positive Christian character and having the pastor give a worthy mini-sermon on sacrifice, but it's too little too late after misrepresenting and offending half of the viewership.Another problem is how the two protagonists suck face too much. The girl's only 15. I'm not saying mid-teenagers don't make-out, but (again) it's so overdone it's eye-rolling.For a better executed and entertaining fantasy/horror flick based on a young adult book series, check out "Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant" (2009).THE MOVIE RUNS 2 hours, 4 minutes and was shot entirely in Louisiana (Covington, Madisonville, Batchelor, St. Francisville and New Orleans).GRADE: C/C- (4.5/10)

Excellent , simple, no rubbish, clean and an awesome evening movie with your girlfriend/Boyfriend. Its so wrong that this movie is so under rated, throughout the time while watching this movie i was waiting for it to get boring(because of low ratings) but it turned out to be awesome and its definitely that category of movie that u wonder about even after days and u certainly crave for a second part. Acting, screenplay and effects are so satisfactory that this movie definitely stands out among the other big banners screenplay tragedies that we wasted our money for but not this one. Although the supernatural concept was same and boring but the dynamic presentation of it, in a cool way will definitely attract attentions. Finally, I would like to conclude with this "I tried my best to chat on my cellphone that I usually do while watching movies but in this movie but I just couldn't ". MUST WATCH

Ethan lives in Gatlin, South Carolina and visits high school there. He bemoans the fact that he has little prospect of leaving, and has applied to a number of colleges. The town seems stuck in the past, particularly the Civil War. His mother is dead; his father is next to catatonic. His welfare is looked after by himself (somewhat) and Amma (mostly). One day a new girl arrives in his class, Lena Duchannes. Her family founded the town some centuries ago, and still owns everything of importance in it.Ethan wants to get to know Lena, which immediately creates separation between him and almost all of his former friends in town. Ethan visits Lena at home, which creates immediate tension between him and her uncle, Macon Ravenwood. The Ravenwood/Duchannes clan are gathering at the family compound to witness the coming of age birthday of Lena.So far, this all seems rather ordinary. The fantasy element is that all members of the Ravenwood family are casters; that is, beings who cast magical spells, often with considerable power. At the sixteenth birthday, Ravenwood teenagers reach their full power as casters, and choose between the dark and the light sides of casting. Lena would rather not be a dark caster like her mother Seraphina, but fate seems to have marked her to be such. Ethan would like to be Lena's husband, but has the full opposition of everyone in Lena's family. Amma would like to help Lena and Ethan to their best possible outcome.I've seen this film compared to Twilight, which is odd. This film has good acting and a witty script. I do not remember laughing while plowing through Twilight, but this one is much better. I anticipated some of the outcome, but not all, and the route to get there was a fun ride.