Maybe it was my rock-bottom expectations, but I actually kind of enjoyed this? Or at least didn't hate it. It's certainly not great cinema but it's suitably cheesy and hokey and amusing. Emma Thompson and Jeremy Irons engage in a scenery-chewing showdown, Emmy Rossum is terrific and looks even better, and the two unknown leads actually aren't bad. The story is nonsense and the special FX not much better, but I still had fun with it. At the very least, it's much better than Twilight and its ilk.

David will give this an A.

I guess I might go to the press screening afterall.

The main girl in this is Jane Campion's daughter. Fun fact.

That wold explain why she looks so dull and lifeless.

Holy shit. Very cool. She is beautiful.

I liked it. It's not a very strong movie but the male lead is quite good (and surprisingly very attractive which I did not get from the trailers...) and there are good performances from the rest of the cast. Didn't really like the character of Lena though, kind of flimsy and just there. Sucks that this won't get a sequel, I'd see it.

Agreed. Ahren Ehdenreich was quite good. I thought the story kind of faded during the battle reenactment but I would have enjoyed seeing a sequel too. They just stuck this in the wrong weekend.

Yeah, going against Safe Haven was a bad idea. Looking at June there are no female oriented movies coming out until The Heat at the end of the month, this should've been released in June.

Better to stop at one, the first three books are pretty good, but book four is worse than Breaking Dawn.

Imperfect though it may be, Beautiful Creatures is a clever, entertaining, and vivid Southern-Gothic fantasy treat far more vital than its inevitable, grim reputation as a failed Twilight substitute indicates or rather will indicate. Directed and adapted by veteran screenwriter Richard LaGravenese (The Fisher King), the film turns, of course, on a teenage supernatural romance: the charming, gentle, literate, and sexy (though chaste) high-school dreamboat and the melancholic witch he loves. Their arc is predictable, but stars Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert (daughter of Jane Campion, the ingenious director of The Piano and Bright Star) are both fantastic, rising well above the call of duty and establishing themselves without a shadow of a doubt as future film stars. There is an intriguing and unusual electric charge when they share the frame, a genuine air of lust and tender understanding, and this is so important (and so hard to capture, hence the spectacular failure of many romantic comedies, dramas, and fantasies). The adult cast is strong, too, in the sense it is clear each is enjoying him or herself; Jeremy Irons in particular delights, savoring every last acidic, barbed Southern one-liner. Also, and I intend this as an enormous compliment, the film has so many strange asides and details. Consider how the main couple bonds over their shared outre taste in literature. Or the way the door of a grand, crumbling mansion opens to reveal an avant-garde, crisp interior. Or, and this is a personal favorite, the small-town, one-screen movie theatre which always spells the title of the film wrong on the marquee (Leonardo DiCaprio in Interception, slasher sequel Finale Destination 6). My point: it is not hard to spot how much care and left-field humor is infused in the film's design. The enterprise is at its least interesting when it stays inside the sandbox of its source material, and most of the vocabulary dense mythology goes in one ear and out the other. But it is hard to mind when the stars and aesthetic choices are so rapturous.

B+

Really enjoyable. It's a bit on the cheesy side but it's very atmospheric and for the most part the actors seem to be having a great time. Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum both steal every scene they are in, and the two leads are actually pretty solid - certainly a lot better than the trailer suggests. It's a shame the sequels won't get made now unless the box office picks up drastically. While this definitely isn't a case like The Golden Compass where there is essentially no ending due to planned sequels, I would have liked to have seen more of these characters and some expansion of the mythology. Still though, the way the film ends is very satisfying and certainly allows it to function as a standalone picture instead of a failed start to a franchise. B+

I liked it and would definitely be interested in any sequels that were ever produced (yeah, 0.01% chance of that happening now). The film's strongest point is the acting of the entire cast involved which was a pleasant surprise since you rarely see any notable acting in young adult tales like this one. And the humor, as David mentioned, is refreshing. 7.5.

Maybe it's because my expectations weren't real high, but I enjoyed “Beautiful Creatures” immensely. I'm actually disappointed I didn't bother seeing it theatrically. I thought it basically looked like “Twilight” with witches. And while on paper that sounds like an apt comparison (both are supernatural romance movies based on young adult novels) it does do the film a disservice. I believe it's a better made and better acted film.

From the trailers I thought the leads (Alden Ehrenreich and Alice Englert) seemed poor, with him seeming particularly terrible. To my surprise they were both great and the two had a really nice, believable chemistry. The supporting cast is also great. Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson seem to be having a great time, and Emmy Rossum is fun and sexy.

From what I understand fans of the books weren't crazy about it, but I've never read the books and I loved it. I'm sad it was a box office flop as I'd love for the other books in the series to become films. I'm glad, unlike most movies based on a series of books, that “Beautiful Creatures” is able to stand on its own and doesn't really end with a big cliffhanger or anything (not in my opinion at least). But it would still be great to see more. It's unfortunate this had to become a victim of a terrible release date. I do believe with a different date where it didn't have to go up against another film attracting the same audience (Safe Haven) it would have performed much better. And if by some miracle they did decide to make another I do think the audience would grow as more discover the first on DVD/Blu-ray, as long as it was released amongst less competition. They'd certainly need to try and cut the budget in half though. But alas I'm not holding my breath for the series to continue, as sad as it may be. “Beautiful Creatures” is well-worth watching though. Such an entertaining film.

8/10 (B+)

I'm with you 100%. I thought his performance seemed terrible from the trailer and I thought he looked ugly, but in the movie I found him very charming and attractive. A big part of it has to do with his character I believe.

The maiel lead annoyed me in the film.

But, you know, among wannabe-Twilights, this is better than Warm Bodies.