Sublimes créatures

The story has an original premise in that's it has a fairly familiar ideas (witches and magic - one of the oldest subjects for stories - strange kid moves into town and changes everything, secrets about the town are unveiled etc.) but the focus is on how the caster girl's powers affect her and her feelings of being outcast all her life, and the story revolves around a teen romance with a twist.

I went to see the film expecting to follow Lena, the caster girl who is struggling with the powers of light and dark inside her, but was (pleasantly) surprised to see the story was generally told from the point of view of her love interest Ethan, the 'normal' boy who falls for the outsider when everyone else shuns her. He's a very likable character, clearly passionate and compassionate, and has a good sense of humour that provides fresh light on the sometimes dark story matter.

It was also a bit creepier than I expected. There is conflict between the light and dark casters, as well as these elements within the characters, fighting for supremacy - danger and fear run through the film, and you will be surprised more than once.

Personally I found this film really entertaining, though I understand many fans are unhappy with the adaptation and I'm considering reading the books myself. I thought it offered everything, humour, action, fear, a sweet romance, a healthy dose of magic - and it's fresh! This is a solid, quality young adult movie.

In Gatlin, South Caroline, the teenager Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich) dreams on leaving the conservative town and go to the college. Ethan has dreams with a mysterious girl and when he meets the fifteen year-old newcomer Lena Duchannes (Alice Englert) in his class, he realizes that she is the girl of his dreams. The outcast Lena is rejected by the mates since she is the granddaughter of Macon Ravenwood (Jeremy Irons), who is considered a worshiper of the devil by the superstitious dwellers.

Ethan gives a ride to Lena and they fall in love with each other. Soon he learns that Lena is a good witch that on her sixteenth birthday will be claimed by the light and the darkness. She may stay in the light, but is cursed to change to the dark side if she falls in love with him. Further, her evil mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson) is a caster that is pushing Lena to the dark side. Now they are seeking a spell to save their doomed love. Will the lovers succeed?

"Beautiful Creatures" is a pleasant romantic fantasy about love, curse and sacrifice. The fight between light and darkness is well resolved and the conclusion is open to interpretations. It will never be nominated to an Oscar, but entertains. My vote is six.

Title (Brazil): "Dezesseis Luas" ("Sixteen Moons")

OK so I postponed watching this movie due to the harsh comments it had gotten from many people about how it wasn't worth watching and I have to say I completely disagree with them!

I watched this movie and loved the story and will admit even got sad/happy at points following the characters growth and change in the movie. It took me to a place that I had never thought about and I will say that, that is something when there are so many movies out these days.

For those who give it crap for not being like the book I do have to say that look at most any book to movie series i.e Harry Potter/Twilight/Hunger Games there are things that have to be left out or reworked in order for a movie to go through it will never be EXACTLY the same. Some things just don't work in the movie world.

Again I loved this movie and would love to see a sequel come out of it. (Yes I do plan on reading the book anyways.)

Okay so here is the deal with this movie. no it doesn't follow the book exactly, but then again, what movie really does? I read all the books in this series about 3 years ago and just finished the last in the series recently. The movie got the main events pretty much right so that is all that matters. The effects were pretty amazing and I have nothing to complain about on the acting. But the only thing that bothers me is that people keep calling this Twilight.

For one, Twilight has poor acting and a stupid story line. I read the books before the movies, and they were only okay. This has a fantastic story line and it is more... realistic i guess. Yes it has magic and what not but he likes her because of her! Not because he "just cant stay away from her". The movie does have a lot of romance but it's more believable that they really care for each other.

It is an insult comparing this amazing book and pretty good movie to Twilight. Yes if you like Twilight you should like this too, just because Twilight was made into a movie first does not mean that this should be compared to it. It is not a Twilight copy. Especially if you read the book, it is for a much more mature mind.

When I first heard that Beautiful Creatures (the novel) was going to be adapted into a movie, I was hesitant to see it, due to the fact that the trailers were absolutely horrible. I'm just glad that the movie focused on a lot more than a supernatural romance, because that's only one of many interesting and complicated plot lines.

Despite the fact that the LA Times and the NY Times gave the flick great reviews, a bunch of lesser-known critics were much harsher on it. After reading some of these reviews, I was shocked to see how biased and silly some of the comments were. It was clear that these were people that walked in to the theater expecting Twilight and were too self-conscious about praising a teen movie to say that it wasn't.

Twilight is all about the romance. Beautiful Creatures has a big Romeo and Juliet thing going on, but at the same time, there's mysteries, prophesies, hypocrisy, Southern politics, Civil War history, religion, death, evil forces, and all sorts of madness making for quite an interesting story (with some very witty and sarcastic dialogue to put a cherry on top).

Other people that read the book were likewise upset, because they thought it strayed too much from the source material. The only MAJOR change made was about 3/4 of the way through the movie, and the end result was still the same as the book. The reason why the writer did this was for the sake of TIME. If he hadn't made that change, the movie would have dragged on for three hours as oppose to rapping itself up nicely at two.

I thought the acting was good as well, and Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert had nice chemistry as Ethan and Lena. Of course, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, and Viola Davis gave great performances, but that comes as no surprise. Emmy Rossum as the wicked siren, Ridley, was fabulous, and Thomas Mann was hilarious as Link.

I especially loved Thompson's twisted character-she played a crazy Republican fundamentalist named Mrs. Lincoln, who gets possessed by Sarafine Duchannes, the most powerful Dark Caster alive. As Sarafine, her performance was definitely "Dark", bridging on psychotic. Not what I was expecting, but I liked it.

However, I thought some of the other actors, like the girls that played the Barbie cheerleaders, were horrible. There is a way to portray phony people and there is a way to pull off a satire while still keeping it believable.

Besides plot and acting, I loved the costumes and set. They were very beautifully done and really captured the gorgeous yet creepy atmosphere of the story. In addition, the effects were cool-nothing to die over, but they served their purpose.

Lastly, I thought the soundtrack was awesome and very different. The mix of classical, blues, country, and alternative music worked great with the film.

Overall, I think the movie is an 8 out of 10. It's not amazing, but it is entertaining, interesting, and something I recommend seeing.