Beastly

A fairytale retold for a modern generation.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect when I started watching Beastly, but shortly into it I saw the connection with Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.  A popular, hunky, stuck up high school student played by Alex Pettyfer, (I am Number Four), gets a lesson in life he won’t soon forget.  He has it all - as far as earthly things matter, but he forgot what it meant to be compassionate, caring, and kind.  Enter the role of the witch, played by Mary-Kate Olsen, who is out to teach him a lesson.  She casts a spell on him which changes the most popular guy in school into a scarred, freak of nature.  No longer the pretty boy he must find someone to say “I love you” before the year’s end or remain beastly forever.  So begins the love story . . .the girl of his dreams, played by Vanessa Hudgens, is the one that can see past his outward appearances and helps him find again what matters most in life.  It’s a pretty generic movie that could’ve been so much more powerful – but it lacked good writing and without a script, even the actors fell flat.  It’s not a leap of faith to watch the movie nor was it filled with in-depth characters or much of a storyline for that matter.  I wouldn’t say it was a waste of time –but it just reminded me of a made for television movie of the week and that left me disappointed.