Today I watched the movie Beastly. It is the modern
retelling of the fairytale The Beauty and the Beast that aired in March of
2011. It is directed by Daniel Barnz and features Vanessa Hudgens as Lindy
Taylor (from High School Musical) and Alex Pettyfer as Kyle Kingsbury (from I
Am Number Four).
 |
In the story, Kyle is a rich, conceited, good looking high
school boy who makes fun of his class mates and thinks he is the best. He makes
fun of a “gothic” girl who was actually a witch in disguise. Since he is so
mean and arrogant she puts a spell on him and makes him bald, tattooed, and
scarred. She then tells him that he must make someone fall in love with him
within a year or he would look like that forever. His father hides him in an
apartment in the suburbs outside of New York City with his maid and a blind
tutor. He is alienated from everyone for a few months and his father begins to
neglect him. He later decides to leave his apartment and go out saves Lindy, a
girl from his former school, from drug dealers who were after her dad. She
moves in with him for protection and wouldn’t talk to him at the beginning. As
time starter passing by, Kyle asks the witch for more time and she refuses but
tells him he will make his tutor’s vision come back and would bring his maid’s
kids to the US if he got Lindy to fall in love with him. He goes back home and
reveals himself to Lindy and as they bond he begins to fall in love with her.
Lindy’s father is put in the hospital for overdose and Kyle takes her to the
train station and lets her go see her dad. Before she leaves he gives her a
letter telling her how he feels about her. In the end, Lindy comes back, tells
him she loves him and leaves again. He then changes back into his old self and
when Lindy comes back she doesn’t believe it is him. She calls Kyle’s phone and
when she hears it ring she believes him and they kiss. At the very end of the movie
the tutor can see again, the maid gets three visas in the mail for her kids,
and Kyle and Lindy live “happily ever after.” This movie is very cliché; it has
an obvious moral to it that people shouldn’t “judge a book by its cover” and
that we shouldn’t be so superficial. Even though this movie is very predictable
and has many bad reviews I did enjoyed watching it. I think both of the main
characters are good and likable actors who fit their characters and did well in
establishing the plot of the story.
You were able to give a lot of good ideas in this analysis of the movie Beastly. First you were able to do a good job giving a synopsis of the movie. I was able to really understand what was happening in the movie after reading what you wrote, saying that I think you could have probably done more of analyzing the movie than telling the plot. I feel like you spent to much time telling us a bout the movie, but towards the end you were starting to give really good thoughts on the themes and what the director was trying to portray in the movie and how he went about doing that. It seems like a pretty interesting moving I like the whole present time “Beauty and the Beast” thing that you talk about and maybe could go into more detail on the similarities. Overall though I think you did a really good job giving a analysis of the movie and I think if you just went into a little more depth it could have been even better. I don’t know if I will ever see the movie but if I do I will make sure to keep all you thoughts in my head like the “don’t judge a book by its cover idea”
ReplyDeleteHearing your evaluation of Beastly was a wonderful refresher for my awful memory! When I first watched that movie I was looking forward to the eye candy who was starring in it, Alex Pettyfer. I forget what other movies he was in, but I just knew that he was gorgeous! So, as you can imagine, the plot rolled on and I was horrified when Alex was scarred by a witch who obviously took the criticism of bullies very personally. It seemed like the witch, played by one of the Olsen twins, had a very bad reaction.
ReplyDeleteOf course, nobody likes a snob, so maybe it was fitting that Alex, the rich, gorgeous kid was scarred, tatted up, and made bald for the benefit of some educational life lessons. Important life lessons such as, don't call witches with bad tempers names, don't tell they entire student body they suck or they will abandon you in the time of need, and don't overlook the cool artsy kids because they might be your true love and save you from looking like the result of a bad steam spa and tat combo! WOW! Mouthful! But, that seems like a pretty good moral of the story. P.s. I loved the movie and loved the soundtrack even more! (;