I saw this last night with friends, and I had fun with them. The quality of the film though? Sorry, it gets a "meh" or a "it was okay?" from me. I didn't hate it, but I thought the pacing was off, most of the singing was underwhelming, and the two lead characters were the weakest link for me.
Pardon the pun, but this never had any hope of holding a candle to the original film for me in the first place ... But I feel even stronger about that after seeing it.
PROS:
- There were some very good ideas presented in this movie, but I thought they were too rushed or glossed over to the point where it felt like padding (so I guess this is a combo of a pro and a con).
- I LOVED how the Enchantress' curse was spread out to not only the castle, but the kingdom as well. It explains so much, and it makes perfect sense.
- The supporting characters. I felt nothing for Belle or the Beast at the end of the movie ... But the servants turning into lifeless antiques? Tear my heart apart, why don't ya. And Josh Gad's Le Fou was great, too (and the whole "controversy" surrounding him? It was a big, fat nothingburger).
- The "je ne sais quoi" joke. This got the biggest laugh from me in the entire film.
I just felt like making a note of this.
- "Evermore." Standout song of the entire film. I love the melody and the lyrics, and the singing is quite good ... But I'm going to have to stick with the Josh Groban version, as the autotune for the Beast prevented this song from being GREAT for me.
CONS:
- I'm sorry, but ... Emma Watson as Belle. Weakest link of the movie for me. Not only did she have the worst singing voice (in an already underwhelming vocal cast), but her Belle completely lacked the warmth that I've come to expect from that character. This Belle fell flat for me.
- The Beast. While I did like him more than Belle, he also fell kinda flat for me. I didn't feel that he and Emma Watson had any chemistry. I am also pretty ticked that it was Mrs. Potts who exclaimed that the Beast was in love. The "Because ... I love her" is one of my FAVORITE lines from the original. Not only did they botch that scene in this, but the Beast actually never says it himself in this movie. Only Belle professes her love. I'm sorry, but this really bothers me.
- Again, the singing was underwhelming. And I find it insulting that Audra McDonald (by far, the most talented singer in this cast) was given only 6 lines to sing. Those six lines stood out, though. I was really ticked off that she started singing the "Beauty & The Beast" finale, only to be cut off by a subpar vocalist like Emma Thompson. GTFOutta here, movie.
- I thought the pacing was very off with this movie. It felt like a movie with a lot of stuff thrown in for the sake of it, and thus making a lot of things feel either rushed or underdeveloped. Like I said in my "pros" section, this movie did actually have a lot of good ideas, but most of those ideas ended up leading to nowhere. Meh.
This is not the worst Disney remake in the slightest. It's not "Alice in Wonderland" or "Maleficent" bad. I'd be lying if I said I liked this more than the "Cinderella" and "Jungle Book" remakes, though. Like I said, this doesn't hold a candle to the original (which I just watched again, for the 100,000,000th time), but I don't think it flat-out "disgraced" the original film either (except for maybe the underwhelming singing). I don't regret seeing it, but it's not something I'd go out of my way to see again.
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