I’d been looking forward to this for a long time now, and so wanted it to be good. Sadly though, this live action remake does little to rekindle the magical charm and beauty of the 1991 animated version.
It’s certainly beautiful to look at, with lavish vibrant detail bursting out of every scene, but in all other areas it just falls flat. Emma Watson as Belle is likeably average. The Beast looks fairly convincing when angry and raging, ridiculous when trying to portray emotion and be loveable. Gaston is annoying and the songs are misplaced and dull. Even Josh Gad as LeFou fails to liven things up!!
To be fair, there are some entertaining moments here and there. The accompanying visuals to ‘Be Our Guest’ are wonderful and the final act, with the enchanted castle inhabitants having to fend off the angry mob of villagers is great fun.
Luckily, my 11 year daughter loved it so I guess the target audience are going to lap it up. It just wasn’t magical enough for this grumpy old man!
Web developer by day, with a movie and TV watchlist that continues to grow as much as my spare time reduces! My favourite movie is Inception and, despite what everyone says, I do not have a man-crush on Tom Cruise.
