Review of Beauty and the Beast (2017) by Jeff B — 22 Jun 2018

Strengths: A remake is a tough game. A remake is even tougher when it's of a timeless classic like the original Beauty and the Beast. This does quite well with that tall task. Emma Watson (Belle) is tremendous as the lead. It's the best non-Hermione work of her career. She's perfect. Dan Stevens (Beast) has strong chemistry with her and also delivers a strong performance. The supporting roles are all well cast, like Luke Evans (Gaston), Ewan McGregor (Lumiere), Stanley Tucci (Maestro Cadenza), Ian McKellen (Cogsworth), and Emma Thompson (Mrs. Potts). A special shoutout to Josh Gad (LeFou), who was hilarious as Gaston's right hand man. He's funny in every scene. The movie does a good job respecting the original film, while making sure it feels just fresh enough.

Weaknesses: It's almost impossible to avoid comparing this to the original. While it's very good, the original is an incredible film that this doesn't come close to matching. Despite being made by Disney in 2017, the visuals aren't as great as you'd expect. The Beast looks kind of distracting at times because he doesn't look realistic. I feel like the film also tried too hard to make Gaston evil. The character was mainly just a cocky douche, but he's over the top in this one.

Overall: Though it doesn't match the levels of the original, this film does work as a very good remake. The casting is spot on, the music is catchy, and it pays enough respect to the original without feeling like a copy.