Beautiful Creatures
Warner Bros. Pictures | Release Date: February 14, 2013 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
52
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
19
Mixed:
17
Negative:
4
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyFeb 13, 2013
Maybe there really are supernatural forces at work in this world. How else to explain Beautiful Creatures? The movie is an intriguing, intelligent enigma — three words not typically associated with teen romances. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures rises above the rabble thanks to an eminently watchable cast and a sharp screenplay by writer-director Richard LaGravenese. Read full review
80
Village VoiceAlan ScherstuhlFeb 12, 2013
Director Richard LaGravenese, who also adapted the novel, lavishes the material with greater wit than its demographic demands, and the central love story feels warm-blooded—the air prickles between the leads. Read full review
75
Film.comLaremy LegelFeb 26, 2013
This film could have gone horribly wrong, but the characters and chemistry are strong, and as such Beautiful Creatures should be lauded for elegantly delivering a tale that at least feels fresh and vibrant. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures has its metaphysical cosmology worked out, and it gives it to us in doses big enough that we understand its rules and believe in its world, but not so big that it starts to get cute or that we stop caring. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures gives supernatural teenage romance a good name, or at least a better one than the entire "Twilight Saga" offered. Read full review
75
McClatchy-Tribune News ServiceRoger MooreFeb 11, 2013
There’s something so delicious when Brits such as Thompson and Irons sink their fangs – sorry – into Deep South dialect. Thompson devours scenery, supporting players and dialogue with every “Bless your heart, shooo-gah” in the script, and Irons curls his non-existent mustache with every syrupy zinger. Read full review
70
TimeMary PolsFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures is good fun and I want to know what happens next for Lena the teenaged witch. Read full review
70
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 13, 2013
There’s not much new under the moon here, which makes what the writer and director Richard LaGravenese does with the story all the more notable. Read full review
70
VarietyPeter DebrugeFeb 11, 2013
Fortunately, writer-director Richard LaGravenese has jettisoned most of the novel and refashioned its core mythology and characters into a feverishly enjoyable guilty pleasure. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures is a fascinating amalgam that demonstrates that a movie can be smart and dumb at the same time. Read full review
67
Entertainment WeeklyOwen GleibermanFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures, more than the "Twilight" films, lacks danger and momentum. The audience, like Ethan, spends way too much time waiting around for Lena to learn whether she's a good girl or a bad girl. Read full review
67
The PlaylistDrew TaylorFeb 13, 2013
Writer/director Richard LaGravenese tries his damnedest to deftly navigate the clunky plot, and while it's not exactly a home run, it's still an incredibly stylish, evocative, edgy (was that an incest reference?) and frequently funny (there's even a Nancy Reagan joke) Southern Gothic romance. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerSteven ReaFeb 15, 2013
Beautiful Creatures tries terribly hard to establish its own mythology of magic and witchcraft and Southern-fried adolescent angst. This isn't Hogwarts, though, and it's not even Forks High from Twilight, but boy, you know Warner Bros., the studio behind Beautiful Creatures, wants it to be! Read full review
63
USA TodayClaudia PuigFeb 13, 2013
Lead actor Ehrenreich conveys a spirited charm, while Englert, the object of his affections, is more blandly self-contained. Read full review
63
Charlotte ObserverLawrence ToppmanFeb 13, 2013
Whether or not you think of this as a knockoff, it has a ripeness “Twilight” never did. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeTy BurrFeb 13, 2013
It’s all a big, gluey metaphor for a girl’s sexual fears and raging mom conflicts, and, as in “Twilight,” the metaphor itself gets buried under mounting waves of CGI nonsense and a ridiculous back story about reincarnated Civil War lovers. Read full review
63
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures springs to life whenever Irons, Thompson or Rossum is centerstage. The grown-ups get to wear all the coolest costumes and spout all the juiciest lines. Problem is, this isn't their story. It's first and foremost a semi-plodding teen romance with supernatural overtones. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 13, 2013
The weaknesses of Beautiful Creatures ultimately outweigh the strengths but the conviction of the central relationship is good enough to keep things from becoming laughably bad, even if it all comes apart toward the end. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 14, 2013
A dash – only a dash – of Tim Burton ghoulishness might have helped. Read full review
50
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanFeb 14, 2013
His screenplay for Beautiful Creatures is sharp and witty, considering the needlessly complicated source material. His cast is stellar, and the chemistry between his young stars magical. But too much of rest of the movie, like Thompson’s monstrous mother, is an unholy mess. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleFeb 14, 2013
There’s potential here, a decent story and a cast well-stocked with grownup cinematic luminaries. But this supernatural Gothic romance is a prisoner of its own demons, which include sketchy Southern accents, tacky and tired stereotypes and faux homespun dialogue in the wrong mouths. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 14, 2013
It's a bigger yawn than it sounds. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 13, 2013
The danger of trying to do a supernatural comedy-romance is that you’ll wind up being as funny as “Twilight,” with all the raw sexual energy of “Bewitched.” Beautiful Creatures isn’t quite that bad, though it did make me long for the cleverer “Dark Shadows.” Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Liam LaceyFeb 13, 2013
What promised to be a teen screwball comedy with a supernatural twist soon descends into special-effects overkill and camp acting from the overqualified supporting cast. Read full review
50
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsFeb 13, 2013
The derivative script and skimpy effects don’t convey either the power or the problems of being a young witch. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsFeb 13, 2013
When classy, pedigreed British actors go hog-wild under the flowering dogwood trees of a Southern Gothic setting, often the results are good. Just as often they're so bad they're good. And sometimes, as is the case with Jeremy Irons and Emma Thompson in Beautiful Creatures, they're simply doing the best they can under the circumstances. Read full review
50
ObserverRex ReedFeb 12, 2013
The movie doesn’t know if it’s a teen fantasy-romance or a more sophisticated satire that the material can’t support. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyFeb 11, 2013
Nicely cast and made with as much conviction as can be brought to something so intrinsically formulaic. Read full review
50
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 11, 2013
I enjoyed this piece of southern-fried screwball Gothic whimsy (with jolts of CGI spell-casting for the multiplex crowd) so much that I’m sad to admit that it’s nowhere near as potent as "Twilight." Read full review
42
Portland OregonianMarc MohanFeb 14, 2013
The film looks old-fashioned, too, with cinematography and special effects so reminiscent of old-school, live-action Disney flicks such as "Something Wicked This Way Comes" that you wonder if it was an aesthetic choice or a budgetary concession. Either way, it doesn't work. Read full review
40
Total FilmSteve O BrienFeb 22, 2013
A semi-successful slice of Southern gothic panto. 
 Read full review
40
The GuardianXan BrooksFeb 16, 2013
The plot is wildly silly and shot full of holes, maundering endlessly on its slow trawl towards the climax. But the cast at least play it like they mean it, and keep it honest for a spell. Read full review
40
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 14, 2013
Beautiful Creatures is still an unabashed imitator, hewing closely to the "Twilight" blueprint. Some might go so far as to call it a blatant ripoff, as the differences between the two are cosmetic at best. Read full review
40
EmpireHelen O'HaraFeb 13, 2013
Had this adaptation of the young adult fantasy-romance taken a few more liberties, it might have been a home run. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichFeb 12, 2013
As with many young-adult book-to-film series, Beautiful Creatures plays like an illustrated compendium of scenes from the novel, as opposed to a finely tuned narrative all its own. Read full review
33
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonFeb 13, 2013
Beautiful Creatures is an oddball creation: a morality play with no basic understanding of morality. Read full review
30
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 16, 2013
What a peculiar production this is. Up to a certain point, it really does promise to be romantic. Read full review
20
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanFeb 13, 2013
Who could have predicted that one day we would long for the relative subtlety of “Twilight”? Richard LaGravenese’s Beautiful Creatures is so outrageously florid, Bella and Edward’s baroque courtship looks understated by comparison. Read full review
0
Slant MagazineCalum MarshFeb 10, 2013
Beautiful Creatures basically spits in the face of a legacy of literature founded on feelings of exclusion and social alienation. Read full review
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