It had only been four months since the final installment of the Twilight Saga was released in theaters, which concluded one of the highest grossing film franchises in history.
It is only natural for Hollywood to quickly begin the search for its replacement. Could the new fantasy movie “Beautiful Creatures” be the next big thing?
“Beautiful Creatures” is adapted and directed by Richard LaGravenese. The novel is the first book in the Caster Chronicles series, co-authored by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl.
The film centers on two teens, Ethan Wate played by Alden Ehrenreich and Lena Duchannes played by Alice Englert, in the small town of Gatlin, S.C. where God has control over nearly everything.
However,when a new girl comes to town with a less than sterling past, trouble begins to brew in this quaint town.
The film has a decent script with a few points that made me want to cringe, but the cast in this film is one of the best ensembles in a teen drama I have ever seen. Both of the leads, Ehrenreich and Englert, are newcomers to the Hollywood scene but do a great job by not making this movie another brooding serious film.
Other notables in the cast are Oscar winners Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson, who both give great performances even with a relatively bland script. The standout in this film was Oscar nominee Viola Davis, who was severely underused in this film.
So, is “Beautiful Creatures” the next Twilight? No, I do not think it will be. It received a decent amount of marketing attention but had a horrible showing on its opening weekend.
According to BoxOfficeMojo.com “Beautiful Creatures” did not even break the Top 5 during its opening weekend, placing sixth and only bringing in $7.5 million. In contrast, “Twilight” brought in over $69.5 million during its opening weekend.
“Beautiful Creatures” is a much better film than “Twilight,” but its popularity as a novel obviously helped the “Twilight” franchise and just like the film “I am Number Four,” its lacking popularity as a book before the release of the film will hurt “Beautiful Creatures” in the box office.
I would rate this film a 2.9 out of 5 and say that it is not one you need to see in theaters, but it is a good movie to rent from RedBox or access on Netflix.