Beautiful Creatures

Dir: Richard LaGravenese

2013

***

Once again I feel tricked into watching a 'Young Adult' adaptation. Beautiful Creatures is the first entry in what is known as the Caster Chronicles, a series of books that focus on a young boy called Ethan and witches and stuff. I know far more about it now than i'm interested in. It's not for me, being a not so young adult, I was clearly never in the target demographic. However, I didn't think it was all that bad. Jack O'Connell was initially linked to the lead role but I think Alden Ehrenreich was rather good and a much better choice of actor in the end. The story isn't half as miserable as I picture the target audience as being and it is occasionally quite fun to watch with some spectacular special effects that are impressive and quite funny (although I'm not sure whether this is intentional). Certain scenes do stand out somewhat and overall I was quite impressed considering it is yet another boy-meets-witch story. Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis and Emma Thompson bring a lot of weight to the production and neither Alden Ehrenreich nor Alice Englert's performances made me want to rip both my and their heads off. In fact I think the two young actors have a bright future. Twilight it isn't and in the best possible way.