Release Date: May 21, 2013
Rating: PG-13
Running Time: 124 minutes

A supernatural love story set in the South, “Beautiful Creatures” tells the tale of two star-crossed lovers: Ethan (Ehrenreich), a young man longing to escape his small town, and Lena (Englert), a mysterious new girl. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.

“Beautiful Creatures” stars Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emmy Rossum, Thomas Mann and Emma Thompson. Rounding out the cast are Eileen Atkins, Margo Martindale, Zoey Deutch, Tiffany Boone, Rachel Brosnahan, Kyle Gallner, Pruitt Taylor Vince and Sam Gilroy.

As a fan of the novel, I believe the film adaptation of Beautiful Creatures is one of the most beautiful films I’ve seen in awhile. The visuals were stunning. Aside from that, this is such a colorful story being told here and this adaptation had quite a job on their hands. The story was well told but I don’t think well enough for viewers who haven’t seen the film. It’s not difficult to follow but there was just something lacking there. Something didn’t feel whole.

Adapting a book that’s over 500 pages and has as much rich history and back story as this novel does is hard to do. I would not have minded another half hour of the movie. Did it seem to move a little too fast for anyone else, in a slightly choppy kind of way? It’s not easy adapting this giant book so I understand, accept, and embrace the word, “adapt” when talking about any adaptation but if you left the theater or your couch feeling like you needed more, pick up the book. It’s so worth it!

The characters were well developed (except for Link, what was up with that?) which I had no doubts about. Although I never envisioned Ethan to be as silly as he seemed in the movie so that kind of took me out of the moment from time to time but aside from this, I loved everything about all of the characters. The casting was superb. Round of applause for the casting. Really! I was originally disappointed about Amma and Marian being merged into just one character, Amma and felt that the Amma in the book would have really livened up the screen, especially for viewers not familiar with the book, but how can you stay mad when Viola Davis is Amma?

Overall, I enjoyed the subtle differences in the film…although I was bummed about Lena not driving the hearse. Of all the things to be bummed about! Sure, I also was not thrilled about Ethan’s memory of Lena being wiped in the end but for the sake of the adaptation, I could roll with it. Macon taking a hold of Ethan’s mind and having him share his terrible future in Gatlin at dinner more than made up for the missing hearse among other things. I loved it.

When approaching adaptations, I typically ask myself if I’d rather see a grand number of subtle differences or a small handful of huge differences and in this instance, I was very glad that there were more subtle differences. Yes, they added up but they worked so, so well – if you don’t include the underwhelming ending and lack of heart in the storytelling. One of my favorite scenes in the book, when Mrs. Larkin appears on Ethan’s doorstep on Halloween, was slightly changed and I was actually completely satisfied with how it turned out. So much so that many of the subtle differences that I enjoyed seem to make up for what I was not very keen on. If you’ve yet to read the novel, be prepared to have the desire to do so afterwards for more of everything and if you’ve read the novel, be prepared for change. This adaptation has its strengths and yes, its weaknesses which just makes it its own beautiful creature.

Special Features:

Behind the Scenes: Book to Screen (3 minutes) – Since this feature is only 3 minutes long, there’s not much that can be taken from it other than the authors were very pleased with the adaptation, which I already knew. I would have liked to have seen way more come out of this feature, although I suppose this was a tease since way more can be found in the Beautiful Creatures Illustrated Movie Companion. This feature includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, Authors, Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl, and Cast Members, Alden Ehrenreich, Emma Thompson, Alice Englert, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis, and Zoey Deutch.

Behind the Scenes: The Casters (4 minutes) – If you were expecting a breakdown of the Casters in Lena’s family and their powers, this is not that. But it is a nice nod to how different Lena and Ridley are. This feature includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, Cast Members, Alice Englert, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis, and Jeremy Irons, and Costume Designer, Jeffrey Kurland.

Behind the Scenes: Between Two Worlds (5 minutes) – Of the first 3 features, this was probably the most interesting one since it did highlight this magical world in such a seemingly ordinary town filled with more history than it will ever know. This feature could have gone on forever. This feature includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, and Cast Members, Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, Emma Thompson, Emmy Rossum, Viola Davis, and Jeremy Irons.

Behind the Scenes: Forbidden Romance (4 minutes) – I would have loved to have seen this feature merged into the previous one. It would have been very fitting, what with the relationship being questioned so much because Lena and Ethan are from two different worlds. This feature includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, and Cast Members, Emma Thompson, Alden Ehrenreich, Alice Englert, and Jeremy Irons.

Behind the Scenes: Alternate Worlds (5 minutes) – I’m not quite sure why this feature is called “Alternate Worlds” since it deals with special effects and the physical sets as well as the stunts. It’s so great seeing how the visual effects accent what’s really there. I love how everyone who worked on the special effects gave so much detail and really broke down what putting this together entailed. Great feature! This feature includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, Cast Member, Emmy Rossum, VFX Supervisor, Joe Harkins, VFX Producer, Tony Meagher, Concept Artists, Ryan Yoshimoto and Chuck Boston, and Production Designer, Richard Sherman.

Behind the Scenes: Beautiful Creatures: Designing the Costumes (4 minutes) –
There are so many different styles to take into consideration when bringing this book to life. There’s the Civil War reenactments, The Claiming, Lena’s style in addition to the individuals styles of Lena’s family members, the other main characters, and the townspeople. It’s a lot. And they got it right! Hooray! It’s so good to see how passionate Costume Designer, Jeffrey Kurland was about this project. Having a director who lets you really use your imagination also helps. While I would have liked to have seen what went into more than Lena, Ridley, and Mrs. Lincoln’s wardrobe, this feature was a great nod to another very significant part to the world that is Beautiful Creatures. This feature also includes interviews with: Screenwriter & Director, Richard LaGravenese, and Cast Members, Alice Englert, Emmy Rossum, and Emma Thompson.

Deleted Scenes (9 minutes) – There are 4 deleted scenes on the Blu-ray edition: “Ridley Entices Link,” “Ethan Calls on Emily,” “Caster Party,” and “Movie Theater.” I really, would have liked to have seen “Caster Party” make it into the final cut of the movie but it wouldn’t have fit well enough with how they portrayed Ridley throughout. It just wouldn’t have flowed right. “Movie Theater” would have also been fun to have seen in the final cut instead of what did as I wasn’t a big fan of Link going off with Ridley the way that he did in the film.

* ICONS by Margaret Stohl Book Trailer

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