The first thing coming to mind when viewing the trailer for Beautiful Creatures are three words. Twilight. With. Witches. However, having seen the latest teen angst novel turned flick in action last night I can safely say this is not the case.
Beautiful Creatures documents the tale of Ethan Wate (Alden Ehrenreich). A 16 year old teen desperate to leave his narrow minded, small-town, hypocritical home behind. Setting his sights on future endeavors and colleges situated in pastures new. Life is just about bearable for Ethan in Gatlin County, going about his everyday business, reading literature banned from the local library being his only escape. Until new girl Lena Duchannes (Alice Elgert) transfers to his school and changes his life forever.
When they first meet, lighting strikes. Literally. Class room windows break. Rain clouds mysteriously appear. Weird visions of the past project from an antique locket. Oh and a wooden sign erupts in flames as the two get…more acquainted against it and the bonnet of Ethan’s car. The usual surroundings of a tale of forbidden love because here’s the heartbreak folks. Ethan and Lena cannot be together because Lena has yet to be claimed by either the forces of the light or the dark and come her 16th birthday (yep, bitch is only 15) her true nature will be revealed. 
A nature her evil mother Sarafine (Emma Thompson) and wicked cousin Ridley (Emmy Rossum) want to ensure is on board with all things dark so they can usher in a new age under which mortals will bow down to their powers as Lena’s birthday falls on one of the most powerful days in over 4000 years. Sucks to be you Lena. Especially when your relationship a) Puts you at risk of being claimed by the dark because of your crazy teenage hormonal magical outbursts and b) your ancient ancestor put a curse on any female who loves a mortal ultimately ending in that mortal’s death. Bella ain't got shit on you. Beautiful Creatures is all about the star-crossed lovers, but the difference here of those of the Twilight franchise is one important factor. Ethan and Lena have personalities. They have chemistry. Ethan and Lena are quirky, cute and a pleasure to watch on-screen. Not to mention they look smoking together.
The cinematography is spectacular. The stunning scenery of South Carolina is simply phenomenal and the sophisticated tone of magical effects throughout contain a modern theme and tone. Not once does it come across childish or broomsticks and black cats inclined. Magic is portrayed as something powerful, unnatural, unbalanced and more than a little bit hot.
The small-town God-fearing community is a hilarity of fun fueled elements for all characters to interact with. Standout performances come from Alden Ehrenreich who nailed the ‘goofy-geek but ridiculously beautiful’ persona and Emma Thompson who having really annoyed me in Love Actually, but mostly because her character was pathetic, has now left me rather terrified of her twisted insanity.
Then there were the clothes. Spell-bounding is the word that instantly comes to mind to describe the overall attire. Victorian, Masonic, bold, rich and luxurious in every sense, dazzling in almost every scene in which the magical Duchannes family came together. All in all taking Beautiful Creatures’ stylish, sexy and slick status to a cemented level ensuring couture creations arriving on screen straight from the catwalk.
That being said, there’s just no pleasing some people. The film has definitely divided the critics and has only gained a 48% on rottentomateoes.com but it can be narrowed down to this. People who have read the book and people who have not. I was in the latter category and I loved it so you do the math. Beautiful Creatures is in cinemas now. The original novel was written by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl as part of the Caster Chronicles’four book series. Check out Ethan and Lena’s haunting love story and the epic featured track by Florence and the Machine in the trailer below.
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