The Beauty in Skull Island
Jun. 1st, 2017 01:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
geeklover80I meant to post this awhile ago and forgot.
Michael and I saw Beauty and the Beast a couple of months ago. At first, I wasn't sure I could get him to see it. I try not to drag him to see anything I know he might not like (we have a running joke about me making him watch Brokeback Mountain which he absolutely refuses to do.) We've watched Disney movies together, but he's not a really big fan of romance films, so I thought he could possibly like it, but wasn't sure.
At first, he suggested we see Kong: Skull Island. I told him I was interested in it, but I suggested we see BaTB. He said he was interested in it, but he wanted to see K:SU more. I laughed and said I felt the exact opposite. Over the next couple of week, I think he came around to it since he knew how much I wanted to see it.
We definitely made the right call because we both really loved it - though I do remember when it started being a little nervous because I realized I forgot to tell him it was a musical. He doesn't hate all musicals (I got him to watch Chicago and he liked it for the most part) but, like with romantic movies, it's not a favorite genre of his. But, like I said, he ended up loving it. When I asked him after the movie what he thought he said he'd give it a ten out of ten. He also joked that the one thing he wished it had more of was someone taking a chainsaw to the face (he's a huge fan of horror movies.)
He told me that his favorite part would end up being obvious to me, but would be hard to guess because it was such a small part of the movie. It took me awhile to figure it out. A lot of the time he's drawn to the scenery in a movie, so I guessed that and he said I was close. Finally, I figured it out and laughed because his favorite part was Belle's garden. Michael loves gardening and growing things and his eye tends to be drawn to that in movies. He actually talked about specific things he saw in her garden he wanted to grow in a garden of our own.
As far me, I just thought the whole movie was just lovely! I wasn't holding on to any nostalgia from the original. I don't remember it that well. Of the Disney movies of that era (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, etc.) BaTB is the only one I can't really remember when I saw it originally. I know I must have seen it at some point, but the only parts I really remembered while watching the new version was the opening song about Belle and Gaston's song. It probably helped that I wasn't judging the new version against the original.
I just really loved the love story. I don't know if I was abnormal as a kid, but I was never the hugest fan of fairytales. I think Cinderella was one of the first stories I read when I learned to read and I just didn't get how someone can basically fall in love at first sight. I've never been a big lover of that trope. Sometimes I'm okay with it (like with The Little Mermaid) but most of the time not. That's why Ever After: A Cinderella Story is my favorite Cinderella version because we get to see them fall in love. It's something I appreciated about Tangled. I liked it about this version of BaTB. We don't spend a lot of time on it, but with the montage we get to that Belle and the Beast get to know each other and it makes their love story believable and very sweet The chemistry between them was great, which sort of feels weird to say since the Beast was partially CGI (I know Dan Stevens actually acted with Emma Watson, but the Beast's face was CGI) so I don't know who to credit with the chemistry - though at the end when he's transformed back to human I thought the two of them had nice chemistry.
The music, the acting, the story, the sets, the costumes were all amazing. I can't even remember the last time (if I ever) I felt like this, but I literally felt like dancing out of the theater when we were leaving.
We did end up seeing Kong: Skull Island a couple of weeks later. I agreed with some of the reviews I read which said the movie didn't reinvent the wheel and is not necessarily original, but as a popcorn movie, it does what it does well. It is exciting in places and sometimes funny. But I am glad I saw BaTB first and definitely liked it better.
Stacey
Michael and I saw Beauty and the Beast a couple of months ago. At first, I wasn't sure I could get him to see it. I try not to drag him to see anything I know he might not like (we have a running joke about me making him watch Brokeback Mountain which he absolutely refuses to do.) We've watched Disney movies together, but he's not a really big fan of romance films, so I thought he could possibly like it, but wasn't sure.
At first, he suggested we see Kong: Skull Island. I told him I was interested in it, but I suggested we see BaTB. He said he was interested in it, but he wanted to see K:SU more. I laughed and said I felt the exact opposite. Over the next couple of week, I think he came around to it since he knew how much I wanted to see it.
We definitely made the right call because we both really loved it - though I do remember when it started being a little nervous because I realized I forgot to tell him it was a musical. He doesn't hate all musicals (I got him to watch Chicago and he liked it for the most part) but, like with romantic movies, it's not a favorite genre of his. But, like I said, he ended up loving it. When I asked him after the movie what he thought he said he'd give it a ten out of ten. He also joked that the one thing he wished it had more of was someone taking a chainsaw to the face (he's a huge fan of horror movies.)
He told me that his favorite part would end up being obvious to me, but would be hard to guess because it was such a small part of the movie. It took me awhile to figure it out. A lot of the time he's drawn to the scenery in a movie, so I guessed that and he said I was close. Finally, I figured it out and laughed because his favorite part was Belle's garden. Michael loves gardening and growing things and his eye tends to be drawn to that in movies. He actually talked about specific things he saw in her garden he wanted to grow in a garden of our own.
As far me, I just thought the whole movie was just lovely! I wasn't holding on to any nostalgia from the original. I don't remember it that well. Of the Disney movies of that era (The Little Mermaid, Aladdin, The Lion King, etc.) BaTB is the only one I can't really remember when I saw it originally. I know I must have seen it at some point, but the only parts I really remembered while watching the new version was the opening song about Belle and Gaston's song. It probably helped that I wasn't judging the new version against the original.
I just really loved the love story. I don't know if I was abnormal as a kid, but I was never the hugest fan of fairytales. I think Cinderella was one of the first stories I read when I learned to read and I just didn't get how someone can basically fall in love at first sight. I've never been a big lover of that trope. Sometimes I'm okay with it (like with The Little Mermaid) but most of the time not. That's why Ever After: A Cinderella Story is my favorite Cinderella version because we get to see them fall in love. It's something I appreciated about Tangled. I liked it about this version of BaTB. We don't spend a lot of time on it, but with the montage we get to that Belle and the Beast get to know each other and it makes their love story believable and very sweet The chemistry between them was great, which sort of feels weird to say since the Beast was partially CGI (I know Dan Stevens actually acted with Emma Watson, but the Beast's face was CGI) so I don't know who to credit with the chemistry - though at the end when he's transformed back to human I thought the two of them had nice chemistry.
The music, the acting, the story, the sets, the costumes were all amazing. I can't even remember the last time (if I ever) I felt like this, but I literally felt like dancing out of the theater when we were leaving.
We did end up seeing Kong: Skull Island a couple of weeks later. I agreed with some of the reviews I read which said the movie didn't reinvent the wheel and is not necessarily original, but as a popcorn movie, it does what it does well. It is exciting in places and sometimes funny. But I am glad I saw BaTB first and definitely liked it better.
Stacey
