As an avid supporter of fairy tales, a particular favourite being Beauty and the Beast, I went to see this film despite its horrendous critical reception. I usually enjoy mindless, simple teen trash for what it is and was even somewhat intrigued by the film's trailer. Unfortunately, calling "Beastly" teen trash would be a generous understatement.
The film's screenplay is no better than the work of a high school student trying to write a short story during their creative writing class. There is rarely if any witty dialogue and many of the lines are laugh-out-loud funny in their obscurity and cheesiness. There are a few very simple plot points in the film and the rest is just utter nonsense and one overly long and painfully uninteresting montage after another. The film should have spent more time developing characters and less time on these useless montage sequences that are so painfully tedious that I actually joked with my friend about falling asleep in the theatre several times.
The acting is pretty mediocre. I'm not going to call Hudgens or Pettyfer abominations to the craft of acting, simply because their characters didn't have nearly enough depth to allow them to prove whether or not they can act. Mary-Kate Olsen stands out as one of the few redeeming qualities this movie has. Her character is instantly biting and likable; she causes you to crave more screen time for her character throughout the film with her adorably wicked smirk and eerie vibe. Neil Patrick Harris is underused in what could have been a potentially interesting side character but manages to try and salvage his poorly written material.
Basically, this movie feels longer than it is, causing many of us to wish it would just be over. Nothing interesting happens that didn't occur in the trailer. There are many unnecessary plot elements, such as something that happens with Hudgens' character's father towards the end and then is sort of just solved off-screen with no real explanation. It's a tedious film and the ending is a cop-out that leaves a bad taste in your mouth as it completely undermines the supposed message of the film. And to top it off, they didn't have the decency to even attempt an epic climax. The climax and final embrace of the romantic leads is truly uninspired and pathetic. Just like the majority of this beastly excuse for a film.
The film's screenplay is no better than the work of a high school student trying to write a short story during their creative writing class. There is rarely if any witty dialogue and many of the lines are laugh-out-loud funny in their obscurity and cheesiness. There are a few very simple plot points in the film and the rest is just utter nonsense and one overly long and painfully uninteresting montage after another. The film should have spent more time developing characters and less time on these useless montage sequences that are so painfully tedious that I actually joked with my friend about falling asleep in the theatre several times.
The acting is pretty mediocre. I'm not going to call Hudgens or Pettyfer abominations to the craft of acting, simply because their characters didn't have nearly enough depth to allow them to prove whether or not they can act. Mary-Kate Olsen stands out as one of the few redeeming qualities this movie has. Her character is instantly biting and likable; she causes you to crave more screen time for her character throughout the film with her adorably wicked smirk and eerie vibe. Neil Patrick Harris is underused in what could have been a potentially interesting side character but manages to try and salvage his poorly written material.
Basically, this movie feels longer than it is, causing many of us to wish it would just be over. Nothing interesting happens that didn't occur in the trailer. There are many unnecessary plot elements, such as something that happens with Hudgens' character's father towards the end and then is sort of just solved off-screen with no real explanation. It's a tedious film and the ending is a cop-out that leaves a bad taste in your mouth as it completely undermines the supposed message of the film. And to top it off, they didn't have the decency to even attempt an epic climax. The climax and final embrace of the romantic leads is truly uninspired and pathetic. Just like the majority of this beastly excuse for a film.