By Lili Samios and Dagney Palmer
LEESBURG, VA-Beastly is a modern retelling of the classic story “Beauty and the Beast”. It stars Alex Pettyfer as Kyle, who is the “beast” of the story. He is a rich, beautiful kid who believes that looks are everything and can get you anywhere. He learned this attitude from his father, Rob, played by Peter Krause. Mary-Kate Olsen plays the enchantress, Kendra. When Kyle invites the enchantress to a party only to humiliate her, Kendra decides that Kyle needs to learn a serious lesson. The “beauty” of this story is played by Vanessa Hudgens, Her name is Lindy, and she is briefly introduced at the beginning of the movie.
As revenge for trying to humiliate her, the enchantress Kendra casts a spell on Kyle, transforming him from a hot egotist to an ashamed, ugly monster. The spell gives Kyle a year to find someone to love him, or he will stay “beastly” forever. His father is so ashamed of Kyle that he sends him away so that he no longer has to see him, and he gets Kyle a tutor, Will. Will is played by Neil Patrick Harris, who provides the much-needed comic relief of the movie. As the movie continues, Kyle meets Lindy again, and they spend more time together. Their relationship grows, but she has to say she loves him soon, or he will stay a monster forever.
This movie fell short. It consisted of Alex Pettyfer being pretty, being slightly less pretty when he was a monster, and comic relief from Alex’s tutor, Will. The rest of the movie seemed to be filler. Overall the acting wasn’t terribly bad, but it wasn’t particularly good either. Pettyfer and Hudgens didn’t have much chemistry, mostly awkwardness and long, slow staring into each other’s eyes.
Neil Patrick Harris’s character, Will, was funny but didn’t have very much depth. He was blind, and he briefly went into a conversation about that but then went right back to cracking jokes. Mary-Kate Olsen went from playing the cute little kid on Full House, to playing the “franken-skank” witch in this movie. She has her moments when she is a creepy witch, but at times she seemed a little cheesy and weird.
We do not recommend seeing this movie in theaters; it is not worth it. If you are a true fan of chick flicks with a happy ending, you should rent the movie when it comes out. Even though there isn’t much depth, and the majority of the movie is awkward, we can’t deny that Alex Pettyfer is, in fact, very pretty.