Beautiful Creatures, the movie, is not so much about beautiful creatures, than the claim to immortality and the fight between “good” and “evil.”
Beautiful Creatures starts slow (at least according to my wife), but soon reveals itself as the clash between casters (immortals) from the dark side and from the side of the light. There is enough excitement in the movie to be a popcorn movie, since it also involves the blooming love between a caster (Lena – Alice Englert) who will turn 16 on December 21, and a normal human, Ethan (Alden Ehrenreich).
However, when a caster turns 16, The Claiming happens. If the caster is a male, then he can choose at The Claiming, and later, whether he wants to be a “dark” or “light” caster. On the other hand, if the caster is female, then she does not have any choice at The Claiming whether she wants to be “dark” or “light.” This is decided for her, since at her Claiming, her true self will be revealed and she will turn to the “dark” or the “light” side based on that inner true self.
It is here where the evil, dark side shows its true colours, since Lena’s mother, Sarafine (Emma Thompson), has become the most powerful caster on the dark side. She is joined by Lena’s childhood friend, and cousin, Ridley (Emmy Rossum), who at her Claiming became a siren, and has amazing powers over men and can make them do anything for her, even kill for her. These two women are trying their utmost to influence Lena’s Claiming so that Lena would be claimed for the dark side.
The casters also have a vast underground, secret library filled with books on their history, incantations and the like. This library is kept secret by a class of humans that are the keepers of this library. They are also seers. Amma (Viola Davis), who was left by Ethan’s mother to keep an eye on Ethan, is the keeper of this library.
In the end, Lena gets claimed for the light side through an amazing event, in which she conquers her mother.
What sours this movie, no matter what these casters are, they simply look like what we would define as witches (apart from the immortality bit, of course). They have amazing powers and use them. They ridicule Christians and as a result Christianity as small minded and against the concept of ideas. They make Christians look stupid and like bigots. Of course there are such Christians. Yet, there are also Christians that follow Christ and His teachings with love and care and who are really making this world a better place. But, these are not the Christians they decided to portray in this movie. No, they would rather use the caricature created by the insanely hateful Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church.
The casters have no place for God, since they are immortal, and believe that humans simply created the idea of God to make sense of their otherwise uncontrollable circumstances.
Also, Amma, at one point contacts her ancestors to help in Lena’s situation. This is a clear violation of God’s laws of contacting the dead. Amma also shows no idea of God’s own holiness and his dealings with sin, since she believes that God created everything and it is us humans that decide what is wrong and what is right. However, it is rather God who decides what is good and evil, and it is us humans who turn God’s holiness upside down calling what is good evil, and what is evil good!
All-in-all, I do not recommend this movie because of this evil factor. Nothing in this movie squares with a Biblical worldview, in fact, it stands squarely against all that is Biblical and Godly.
Whether kids will watch this movie and then try to go into witchcraft and the like, I do not know. However, if they do, they will simply sell their souls to be tormented and be devoid of any power anyhow.
