Beastly

6/10 E.M.
4/10 C.E.

  As anyone who has taken even the slightest interest in this movie should know it is basically a modern day live action Beauty and the Beast. The movie is also based on the book by Alex Flinn of the same title. Now granted I never read the book however if you ever saw the cartoon you would in all likely hood know upon seeing the movie you aren't missing out on much. The only changes really are that instead of turning into a beast the main character Kyle becomes horribly deformed and instead of owning a castle filled with talking teapots he lives in a nice loft in New York with a blind teacher and a servant. Other differences include a tree tattoo instead of a rose that indicates how much time he has left to find true love and the Belle character Lindy filled with a troubled dad and daddy issues. All in all same old tale just twisted around a little.

  However somewhere in all this twisting and turning the movie becomes disjointed and in the end feels downright rushed. The movie shows us Kyle chilling in his hideaway if you will for months on end doing nothing wasting this film time where literally nothing happens and sacrificing it when it would be more useful to later in the film when stuff actually happens. They would have been better off going the Twilight route and had him sit in a chair and look out the window and see time go by or better yet just show the next scene and have the words X months later. ( Sorry forgot how many months that was in the movie.) Furthermore time is as mentioned rushed way too much in the parts that it counts. For example it shows Kyle and Lindy just sitting and reading poetry for a whole winter rather than using it to show instances of love growing fonder ect throughout that time. This shortcut although a bit artsy and poetic as a film device cripples the film and doesn't actually SHOW the growing love connection. It's almost like showing a happy couple that meets and their first few dates then fast forwarding to the marriage.

  Alex Pettyfer surprised me considering his last role in I am Number Four and shows the audience that he indeed can act, although I stand by my earlier statement that the poor guy's face restrains his emotional range. He does and excellent job, although a bit over the top of being a rich spoiled jerk who's completely sure of himself and on top of the world. His later role of being this boy striped of all he's known and who's in love with a girl is also well portrayed us able to see his old self crop up every once and a while which is realistic and yet at the same time able to largely see the changes in his character. These changes are however dangerously balanced because they aren't strong which is let's face it is realistic, however at times due to either script, directing or acting become almost invisible.

  Vanessa Hudgens does a good enough job of being the object of Kyle's affections as well as being a "deep" girl who's on the outside. We however don't really see her as a girl with daddy issues which most girls would have given the scenario which I would attribute to her being a strong character which is really just a way of either creating a fictional girl or of avoiding further character development on the director's part. Niel Patrick Harris whom I love from How I Met Your Mother did a great job in his role of being the sassy blind teacher Will and I honestly wouldn't want to see anyone else play that role. According to IMDB he even wore opaque contacts to cause him to really be blind while he acted. Last but not least I believe that Lisa Gay Hamilton deserves a pat on the back for her role of Zola hitting the nail on the head at every point of the film.

  As mentioned the plot is entirely unoriginal and really predictable but what more can you expect? As for the soundtrack it isn't really all that spectacular either. I will definitely give props to the make up or CGI artist whichever that did a great job of changing Alex Pettyfer into "the beast" as well as the costume design for the witch Kendra. (Mary Kate Olsen) In the end the movie is definitely nothing that we haven't in our youth seen before however it is well done acting wise and is a charming enough love story as can be expected.