Everything you hate about Twilight — the uncollectible dialogue , the cockamamie scenario and drippy characters , the eye - twine political science — is made right in Beautiful Creatures . This flick is a supernatural high school romanticism full of teenager who talk like material human beings and make determination that are n’t whole stupid . And yet it ’s still a terrific , fun flight of fancy about Wiccan , ghost of the Civil War , and a small southerly townspeople where church ladies fight down librarians for the souls of the immature . This is the movie you never expected to like — but you probably will .
The comparing between Beautiful Creatures and Twilight are inevitable — not least because the books they ’re based on were writtenafter the source ’ teenage kids challenged them to compose a cool supernatural Word about gamy schooltime that did n’t admit stupid glistering lamia . It turn out that they could . Under the critical guidance of several teenagers , they produced a series about a untested man , Ethan , whose entire life changes when the furious witch Lena comes to his tiny southern town and matriculates into high school .
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Beautiful Creatures begins with Ethan ’s compass point of view , and as the photographic camera floats through his township , he tell us in voiceover how game the shoes is and how all he wants to do is leave . The moving-picture show dramatics never gets current flick and there is no place for adolescent to cling out , but there are a twelve churches and people are always banning Book . Ethan has made it his particular project to read those banned playscript . When we first meet Ethan , his nose is buried in Kurt Vonnegut ’s Slaughterhouse - Five , and he ’s musing about how nerveless it would be to do “ unstuck in time ” like the novel ’s submarine . He ’s also obsessing about a beautiful young woman he ’s been see to it in his dreams , and drawing her , Sandman - style , in his notebook . This young woman is , of line , Lena .
When Lena shows up mysteriously in Ethan ’s social class on his first day of junior year , with her tike - black hair and her alt.country sweater , she ’s like a shot victimized by the call off Christian girl in Ethan ’s class . In between hint that Lena is diabolic , these girls tell their English teacher that they wo n’t register To vote down a Mockingbird because their mothers say it is n’t Christian . One of the not - so - insidious message of Beautiful Creatures is that southern conservatism is basically more evil than bad hag could ever be . Though the subject matter is a small clunky and simplistic , it ’s hard not to love the high jinks when Emma Thompson arrive to chew the scenery as Mrs. Lincoln , the Ithiel Town ’s most bigoted church gentlewoman .
There ’s a band of broad humor as Mrs. Lincoln takes on Lena ’s rich uncle ( Jeremy Irons ) , a hermit who has welcomed Lena to his home because he wants to protect her in the Clarence Day chair up to her witchy coming of long time on her 16th birthday . Lena and her uncle , like all people of their variety , favor to be call “ casters ” — and they are basically the town minority mathematical group . Though the castor are n’t out to the town about their power , it does n’t take much for Mrs. Lincoln and Co. to figure out that there ’s something a little supernatural about the lightning tap and random methamphetamine detonation that happen when Lena is around .
It also does n’t take much for Ethan to figure it out , either . He knows there ’s something uncanny going on with her , but he ’s drawn to her anyway — partly because he ’s intrigue by the playscript she ’s register . When he asks whether Charles Bukowski is a “ good ” poet , Lena replies snarkily , “ delimitate goodness . ” And that exchange becomes the variety of philosophic kernel of this movie . We name promptly that Lena ’s house are all castor , and that young woman in the kinsperson must be “ claimed ” for commodity or evil on their sixteenth birthdays . Lena ’s first cousin , a femme fatale name Ridley , has already been claimed for evil — and Lena reverence that she will be , too . give how powerful she is , this could mean a gravely terrific future for humanity .
When Ethan and Lena spill in love , things get peculiarly complicated . Lena ’s sept does n’t okay of her affiliate with human , part out of prejudice , but partly because there ’s a whammy that haunts the class that ’s connected to the “ claiming . ” And it turns out that Ethan could be part of this curse , due his town ’s history during the Civil War . There ’s a delicious but not terribly complicated whodunit here about southerly history , but there are also just the ordinary tribulations of two smart , imaginative teen falling in love for the first time . Unlike their Twilight enhancer , Bella and Edward , this teenage couple actually seek to cerebrate about the consequences of their relationship . They even help each other get through tough times instead of tormenting each other ( though there is a little bit of tragical yearning of course ) . And they deal with the real - world limitations on their kinship or else of looking ahead to eternal , magical happiness .
at last , Beautiful Creatures is n’t just about magical smackdowns ( though there are those ) and cartoonish southern stereotypes . It ’s about young adults postulate themselves what it would mean to be a honest person . There are various theoretical account of good in Ethan ’s townsfolk , ranging from Mrs. Lincoln ’s religious conservativism to Lena ’s uncle ’s arch elitism . But none of them are appealing . Lena and Ethan are going to have to figure out for themselves what it would intend to “ define good , ” and this movie is brave enough to suggest that there is no light result . It helps that Alice Englert as Lena delivers a elusive , glowering execution , and Alden Ehrenreich as Ethan provide her with a charming , sunny counterpart .
Though Beautiful Creatures is now and then simplistic , and definitely goofy , it ’s also a genuinely compassionate story of what it ’s like to make your first adult conclusion in a world where nothing is black or white . Do n’t be fooled into thinking this is just another adolescent magic illusion . It ’s a luck more than that , and it ’s fun to take in a supernatural high schoolhouse storey done right for once .
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