Ethan Wait has been dreaming about a woman he has never met and he knows he is in love with her.  It is start of Junior year for Ethan in the very Christian town of Gatlin, South Carolina.  A new girl named Lena Duchannes joins the high school and she is the niece of rich recluse MaconRavenwood.  Strange things start to happen in Gatlin and soon the town turns against Lena, but it is all part of an effort by a dark Caster named Sarafine to get Lena turn to the dark instead of the light when the Claiming comes when she turns 16 and it will be decided what type of Caster she will be.  Lena and Ethan fall in love and they learn of the curse which they must find a way to break to help prevent Lena to turn to the dark.

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES is an enjoyable and sometimes plodding supernatural romance that has characters that are more emotionally available than the characters in TWILIGHT ever did.  The movie is told mostly through the eyes of Ethan as you learn how fragile teenage love can be.  I relate to the characters in the movie more than say TWILIGHT where characters brood, get angry, whine, or be emotionless.   The casting is spot on for all of the characters and the Southern US setting is another character and Jeremy Irons adds a sense of class to the movie as the eccentric (and overprotective) Macon Ravenwood.   Macon wants to protect Lena while he knows what cost she may have to pay to be a Caster of the Light.  

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES works for the most part due to the chemistry between the actors and the story, but sometimes it threatens to get lost in trying to execute the story and screech to a halt.  I definitely want to watch a sequel and I might go read the novels.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

BOOK TO SCREEN- a quick promo piece on how the filmmakers adapted the book

THE CASTERS- a quick look at the Light and Dark Casters in the film

BETWEEN TWO WORLDS- why Gatlin served as the perfect location for BEAUTIFUL CREATURES

FORBIDDEN ROMANCE- a look at the romance between Lean and Ethan and how outside forces threaten to destroy it

ALTERNATE WORLDS- a look at the VFX of the movie

BEAUTIFUL CREATURES: DESIGNING THE COSTUMES-  a quick piece on the costume design and how it was tailored to fit each character.

Also on the disc are four deleted scenes rightfully cut from the film and would have slowed down the pacing, two theatrical trailers, a trailer for New York Comic Con, a TV trailer, and a book trailer for ICONS by Margaret Stohl.

FINAL ANALYSIS:  BEAUTIFUL CREATURES isn’t a bad film with realistic teenage characters, but the making-of featurettes are a major letdown. 

this movie review is (c)2-15-2013 and blu-ray review is (c)5-22-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission.  send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com