Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Hirdannen — 15 Apr 2017

Beeauty and the Beast is not a bad movie, but if you have already seen the Disney classic, you won't find anything new. For someone like me who watched the source material more than 20 times, I knew by heart the content of the movie. The movie's respect to the source material was actually what made it very boring to me. Same songs, nearly same actions.. The only differences were, in my opinion, bad ideas.

A little surprise for me was seeing black actors in the movie which was meant to take place in France (maybe 15th century ?). From a history viewpoint, that just could not be the case (in the form shown here), but well I understand the idea of modernizing movies to the morals of the day (which is a good thing actually). However, In that case I was also expecting asian, latino or arabic actors (which were actually closer to France at that time).. I might have missed something, but I only saw white and black people. It felt weird. I've seen other reviews mentionning an openly gay character, I might have missed him. I don't think there was any censorship in France about that so I might not have been sufficiently attentive.

A big problem for me was Gaston's portrayal. In the source material, he was really an *****. Self-absorbed brutish guy who likes being the center of attention. He's not evil by definition, but it's clearly shown in the classic movie how dangerous some character traits can be. When Belle rejects him, he gets over it eventually and fights the Beast only because it reveals a challenge worthy of him (I mean, he's a hunter). But he doesn't threaten Belle's father for her hand, doesn't let him be devoured by the wolves or doesn't lose his calm. The live action movie portrays Gaston as... a madman. Maybe a guy which was profoundly traumatized by the war ? He likes attention but acts in a very insulting manner toward other girls (I saw no point in the scene where his horse launches dirt on the ladies). He loses his temper like a madman (Luke Evans acting might not have helped). Also a very strange scene is when he comes back to see Maurice seated at the table in the bar and everyone asking Gaston if he tried to have Maurice eaten by Wolves. The last scene at the bar was a celebration of Gaston's image in the town and showing Maurice as an old fool, how is it possible all of a sudden that everyone doubts Gaston ? How can he even needs to justify himself in front of everyone which adores him ? In the end, I think the live-action Gaston is just a typical EVIL character with far less substance than the original Gaston.

Also I hate the fact that everything has been done to remove any blame from the Beast. In the movie they explain that the reason he's a selfish brute is because of his father and because his servants did nothing. It tries everything to portray the Beast as a victim. Coupled with Gaston's portrayal, it makes things far less interesting than they were in the source material. We have a clear bad guy (Gaston) which is EVIL, and a good guy (the Beast) which is GOOD because he's a victim. Really Disney ? Really ?

Graphical effects are amazing, but there is so much happening that I can't really focus on them.

Emma Watson as Belle... Humm.. There was something that didn't quite fit. Maybe I just can't see Emma Watson as anyone else than Hermione ? Maybe her acting wasn't good ? I can't quite decide yet.

I will finish by the stories about Belle's mother and the Beast's mother. Was that really necessary ? If they used this as a common ground for developping their relation (for example by sharing things about how it feels to lose one's mother), I would have understood. Also the Enchantress/Agatha acting was just... frightening. Keeping your eyes wide open like being on some sort of trance is not really acting in my opinion..