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Synopsis (from IMDb):
Ethan longs to escape his small Southern town. He meets a mysterious new girl, Lena. Together, they uncover dark secrets about their respective families, their history and their town.
***
I'm struck speechless. And not exactly the good kind of speechless.
Well, for one thing, the plot is... I don't know, almost completely different from the original book. There's just not enough Ethan/Lena moments in the movie. Yeah, I totally understand the movie will never be the same as the book. But... there are just too many difference to call it a movie adaptation. There are major difference, difference that can alter the plot of the whole story and change the plot development in Beautiful Darkness (that is, if there will be one Beautiful Darkness movie). Which... I will talk about later.
Okay, the actors and actresses can act. I won't say all of them are good at it, but they can surely act. That I will give them credit for. But... I'm sorry, they don't just fit in to my dream cast. I guess, that's the age old problem, so... nothing big to discuss here. But, yeah, they act quite well, despite my doubts on it.
There are big changes in the plot of the movie. And most of them are... WTF moments. (Huge spoiler ahead!) First of all, I don't understand the whole Ethan-forgetting-Lena-because-she-made-him-so thing. What's the point of this? Even with the ending, which is completely bizarre to me, there's just no way the plot can develop to the original (well, as original as it can get) way. Or will the thing that Lena tells Ethan that she claimed herself goes to the plot of Beautiful Darkness movie (if there's one)? Or were the crew not prepared for the sequel? That's just completely absurd. I'm not satisfied with this one.
And where's Hunter? I've seen no Hunter in Beautiful Creatures movie, and he's supposed to play the big part in Lena's Claiming... ceremony (whatever that is). And worse, he's supposed to play a huge part in the forthcoming three books. And Larkin... Larkin is supposed to be a Dark Caster disguising as Light in the manor. And... not that I'm complaining, but he's still Light Caster. Or is the whole thing put into Beautiful Darkness movie, if there's even one? There are more changes in the movie that I don't even want to talk about anymore. This is NOT a movie adaptation, okay? I'm completely disappointed on these changes.
The special effects... I can't say they are cheesy. Because they are not. They are quite good actually (not the best I've seen. But good enough). But they just don't quite fit for the movie itself. It's not as mysterious as I thought it would be. I mean, I know making the board catch on fire is surely a Lena-thing, but it's a little weird for the whole kissing scene. And there are not enough supernatural moments in this movie. I guess it means not enough special effects?
Look, I don't know what you guys think about it. But I'm quite disappointed with this movie. It's supposed to be... not exactly a remake, but a base of this movie. And the movie's supposed to base on the whole storyline. The ending shouldn't be that different. The acting skills of the cast is probably the only thing that I actually appreciate in this movie. I think the crew can do better than that.
I know I need to separate my judgement of the books from my judgement of the movie. But the ending is still just as absurd to me even if I do my best to separate them. And the supposed-exciting part isn't as exciting as I thought it would be. And if you want me to compare between the books and the movie, I will say I love the books way more.
Rating: 4.5/10
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