Here we have yet another teen romance novel, but with a somewhat unique premise, brought to the silver screen.
Unlike many of its contemporaries, the book doesn’t have any sequels, meaning we’re not dealing with “multi-million dollar franchise” material. So far, this has even been reflected in the relatively weak marketing of the film, as the biggest push came from a contest held on deviantART.
Beautiful Creatures is set in the small town of Gatlin, South Carolina. Our main character, Ethan Wate, played by Alden Ehrenreich, is a young man who feels stifled by the religiously conservative environment of a boring, dead-end town.
Things change when a mysterious young girl named Lena Duchannes, played by Alice Englert, moves into the mysterious Ravenwood mansion.
Ethan later learns that Lena is a Caster; a magic user whose powers will be “claimed” for either the light or dark upon her 16th birthday. Jeremy Irons, Emily Rossum, and Viola Davis round out the supporting cast.
The story does a decent job of world-building, but there are some things that could have been developed further.
It feels as if there were certain aspects, and even certain characters, that were probably important in the novel that just didn’t quite translate to film. There are also times where certain actions of the side characters feel a little too cartoony and exaggerated.
On the upside, the story has a very unique atmosphere that manages to set itself apart from some of its contemporaries and acknowledges some of the more religious aspects of both the town and the Caster lifestyle. Something most stories in this genre tend to avoid.
On the visual side, the imagery used to create the magic spells have a very distinct visual style. However, when you get to some of the major spell casting, it can get to be a little over the top, and not in a good way.
When it comes to the remaining technical aspects, a lot of it is par for the course. It has decent editing and cinematography. The script is written well with decent pacing and dialogue.
Overall, Beautiful Creatures was better than I expected. The main characters are likable and the story, while borrowing some tropes common in urban fantasy and teen fiction, is still fairly enjoyable and executed in a more intelligent manner than what we’ve come to expect.
On my personal scale, I give Beautiful Creatures a 4/5.
