Whoo, for a second there I thought that this film was going to be about that annoyingly souless hard rock, or post-grunge, or metal, or some kind of sloppy form of modern rock, but no, people, we're not being forced to endure teenaged boy garbage, just... fare that's more… More
Whoo, for a second there I thought that this film was going to be about that annoyingly souless hard rock, or post-grunge, or metal, or some kind of sloppy form of modern rock, but no, people, we're not being forced to endure teenaged boy garbage, just... fare that's more for teenaged girls. Jokes aside, this film is surprisingly decent, which is good, because from the trailers, I was expecting just another catastrophic "Twilight" rip-off. Oh yeah, you can tell that this film was going to stink, based on the fact that it features Jeremy Irons, Viola Davis, Emma Thompson and Emmy Rossum. I don't really know if Rossum has done anything necessarily good enough be nearly as credible as the other aforementioned names (Yeah, I know, "Mystic River", but she died as part of the development segment, so that doesn't count), I'm just emphasizing her being here because I'm happy to see that she's finally starting break out after, for the strangest of reasons, going all but absolutely nowhere after 2004's "The Phantom of the Opera", a commercial show-stopper... and critical disappointment (Either this girl can't catch a break or Joel Schumacher can't catch a break), seeing as how she is pretty talented and, well, just kind of fascinating to look at. People, good-looking as the girl is, don't tell me you're not at least a little thrown off by her face's being comprised of pretty features that are all pretty in varying fashions, which don't really gel together, but still leave her as too cute to have the type of physique that she does. ...Eh, whatever, she's still pretty hot, inconsistent though she may be, but I digress, partially because there's not enough to say about this film to keep me from going off on tangents. Sure, the film is decent and all, and I did not expect to say that, yet, much like Emmy Rossum's type of hotness, not everything gels together all that perfectly.
It gives an adequate amount of background information and delivers on some often well-rounded characterization, as I'll go more into later, and yet, something feels thin about this film's expository depth, which really doesn't explore too much in the way of, well, depth, failing to be meaty enough in flesh-out for the story and characters to truly lock in your investment, which is further shaken by some histrionics. Don't worry, people, because this film's melodrama is hardly anywhere close to the level of a Nicholas Sparks book, let alone a Stephanie Meyer book that it occasionally appears to want to be, but it's still romantic, young adult fare, and only so much can be done to keep moments of cheesiness at bay. Needless to say, the relatively less genuine moments in this film's dramatic intrigue would be easier to forgive if the melodramatic beats weren't so familiar, much like many other aspects in the final product, which isn't trite, but is decidedly rather conventional, and more so than it probably should be, meeting every reasonably refreshing moment in storytelling with a barrage of tropes that range from easy to shrug off to almost cornily disconcerting. Before too long, things devolve into predictability, which does damage to intrigue and betrays the, albeit moderate, but still undeniably present potential for relative uniqueness that could have carried this film a long way, but ends up falling a bit short, along with too many other aspects of the film. I went into this film expecting just another lame "Twilight" rip-off, but ended up finding a relievingly decent effort, backed by genuine inspiration and substance, yet the final product would have been more if it didn't meet every moment of inspiration with a watered down spell, for although the film rarely, if ever dilutes into the mediocrity that has conquered lesser films of its nature, it doesn't take too many chances, with such small aspects as the mainly lame mainstream soundtrack being tainted with overstylized touches, while such more major aspects as subtlety fail to go all that thoroughly explored. Against my expectations, the film hits more often than it doesn't, but it does, in fact, face its fair share of misses, which are just prevalent enough for the final product to meander along, until finally sputtering out as kind of underwhelming. Still, as flawed as the film is, when it works, as it often does, it hits just hard enough to win you over as decent, or, at the very least, technically impressive.
I reckon the version whose excerpts were used in the marketing campaign didn't have time to touch up its technical touches all that much, because not even the effects looked all that good in the trailers, but when it comes to the final product, while they're not exactly stellar, the effects are strong, being lively and dynamic, with enough slickness in their gelling with the film's environment to compliment the effectiveness of the selling of this world, particularly during the impressive action sequences. Sure, like the effects that compliment them, the action sequences in this film are rarely, if ever truly mind-blowing, no matter how much your appreciation is augmented by their being rather underused, but when spectacle comes along, it thrills, thanks to technical skill and slick style, which isn't to say that substance isn't worthy of some complimenting in here. Like I said, Kami Garcia's and Margaret Stohl's story concept is flawed, hitting plenty of tropes and certain other storytelling hiccups, but at the end of the day, there is some potential to this intriguing, if a bit formulaic fanatasy tale, whose full depths go a bit underexplored in the final product, but still done a fair degree of justice by plenty of areas within Richard LaGravenese's script, which turns in plenty of surprisingly sharp moments in dialogue, as well as characterization that stands to be more thoroughly fleshed out, yet remains well-rounded enough to earn your investment in the individuals who drive this character piece and are themselves further driven by engaging acting. Okay, first off, I must tell you that this is an accent-tastic, South-set, and that I am one proud southerner who has heard plenty of natural accents from around this slice of 'Merica, so I'm going to be the first to tell you yankees that not all of these southern accents work, ranging from offputting to near-laughable, yet still somehow never getting to be so questionable that you can't get used to them, largely thanks to their being backed by performances that are otherwise quite convincing, with Jeremy Irons and the unevenly used Emma Thompson, two of the handful of talents who boast a convincing deep South accent (Seriously, Californians, these people aren't even American and they have a better idea of how we southerners sound), being commandingly effective and sometimes even unpredictably layered, while the up-and-coming young leads, the handsome Alden Ehrenreich and the very pretty Alice Englert, show considerable promise through the occasional effective dramatic touch to break up consistent near-exceeding charm, augmented when bonded into crackling chemistry. The performances aren't too outstanding, but they are much better than you expected, if you can get past the accent shortcomings that is, having just enough inspiration to compel to a certain degree, much like a certain rather inspired offscreen performance. LaGravenese, as director, certainly stands to do and explore more, but when he goes the extra mile to flesh things out, he delivers on a glimpse of what could have been that replenishes your investment, sometimes through genuine resonance, often through intrigue and consistently through entertainment value. LaGravenese's lively efforts could be livelier, yet there is enough meat to directorial storytelling to product a final product that, while flawed and a bit watered down, surprises as genuinely decent, with enough entertainment value and other high points to win you ever, even if you won't walk away all-out rewarded.
When the spell is broken, you're left walking away from a reaonsably promising effort whose expository shortcomings, conventionalism and subtlety issues go into composing the perhaps intentional lazy spells that drive the final product into a watered down, rather underwhelming state, but not so deeply that you can't ultimately find a film that is surprisingly quite decent, as there is enough competence to technical value and style, as well as enough meat to substance, - carried by a decent script, strong cast and generally inspired directorial performance - to make Richard LaGravenese's adaptation of Kami Garcia's and Margaret Stohl's "Beautiful Creatures" a watch that may fall short of potential, but boasts enough high points and entertainment value to keep you going.
2.5/5 - Fair
