Beauty and the Beast (2017)

Genres

Fantasy, Musical, Romance

Director

Bill Condon

Countries

USA, UK

Cast

Emma Watson, Dan Stevens, Luke Evans, Kevin Kline, Josh Gad, Ewan McGregor, Stanley Tucci, Ian McKellen, Emma Thompson, Audra McDonald, Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Nathan Mack, Hattie Morahan, Adrian Schiller, Gerard Horan, Haydn Gwynne, Michael Jibson, Ray Fearon, Sophie Reid, Rafaelle Cohen, Carla Nella, Jimmy Johnston, Dean Street, Alexis Loizon

Storyline

As punishment for his actions, a young prince (Dan Stevens) is transformed into a monstrous beast by a mysterious enchantress (Hattie Morahan), and the curse will be lifted only if he learns to love someone and earn their love. What may be his only opportunity arrives when he meets Belle (Emma Watson). 

Opinion

I've never been that big of a fan of Beauty and the Beast. I think I've seen the original Disney movie only once. That said, I was quite excited for this live-action version because the trailer looked amazing. I'm not quite sure Condon's film was able to live up to my expectations though.

Sure, visually it's very beautiful - CGI is great, so are the sets and costumes, although the Beast isn't very scary - but it lacks something, magic. That magic that should be able to make you feel like you're living the fairytale. A magic I was able to sense in the trailer only. This live-action is indeed dull and emotionless.

The storytelling is all over the place. Like I said above I was not very familiar with the story, and after watching this film, I'm still not. Some parts are dragged, some parts are incredibly rushed and they make the story unengaging and quite unappealing. It's even hard to understand how Belle falls in love with the Beast. It almost looks like the only reason is that he has a big library.

The characters are one-dimensional and underdeveloped but worst of all, they lack emotion and it's almost impossible to feel something for them. Except for Gaston. I think they got the character pretty right because, despite Luke Evan's face, I ended up hating him towards the end of the film. And I'm not even sure how to feel about Lefou. His homosexually is offensively used for comic relief only.

All of that being said, Beauty and the Beast still manages to be a decent musical. A bit entertaining and fun, the numbers and songs are probably the only enchanting thing about the film and they are properly delivered by the cast.