Beautiful Creatures

Beautiful Creatures

Rated PG-13 And Released 2/15/13

Reviewed 2/18/13 at Celebration North in Grand Rapids, MI

with Gary

2 out of 5 Js in QUIET Rating System

A lame attempt at Twilight with a little Escape to Witch Mountain tossed in sums up this tale. It's based on a book series being touted to be the next big book-to-movie franchise. It may be too lofty of a goal following the likes of Twilight and Hunger Games. It didn't hit the mark, but it still might be a hit with the wide range niche of tween girls.

Lena (Alice Englert) is the mysterious "witch"girl that is a newcomer and quickly ostracized by pretty much everyone in the very religious good old southern town. Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich) seems to be the only one to "accept" her while falling for her, despite the forbidden love that trips them both up. At the mature age of 15, Lena must catch a break before her 16th birthday and show her true nature in a positive light or be cast into the throes of dark witch hood. Probably the most entertaining is Jeremy Irons as Lena's uncle and guardian. A couple of other notables - Emma Thompson, the moral code town watch dog, and Viola Davis, Ethan's guardian and town librarian - add some much needed spark. At the big family gathering for Lena's birthday, her naughty witch mother and saucy aunt arrive to ensure Lena joins them in the dark side. If it could just skip to the end a little quicker to the tender little twist, then I might give this a little more credit. The story goes nowhere for quite some time through the middle chunk of the film and then ends with the "set up" for the next movie to follow. Maybe the remaining books should just be left to the readers, unless they recast and then rewrite the script. Or how about just scrap the entire project.

QUIET Rating system: 2 Js

Quality: JJ

Understood story:  JJj

Interest: JJ

Entertainment:  JJj

Time:  Jj