Rant of the day -- Beautiful Creatures based on the novel? Hardly!

I was hoping that the film adaptation of Kim Garcia and Margaret Stohl's YA novel Beautiful Creatures would be a decent book to film film adaptation. But after seeing the film last night, with the person who got me hooked on the series of books to begin with, all I can say is that, whether or not the movie itself was decent, one thing is certain -- it is NOT an adaptation (decent or otherwise) of the novel Beautiful Creatures. 

Now, I've previously defended Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit. Yes, Jackson made some changes. But while the Tolkien purists would disagree, The Hobbit film was still basically The Hobbit! The story still followed the same multiple plot threads. Jackson may have added stuff. Jackson may have even interpreted things differently, but it was still The Hobbit. Beautiful Creatures, on the other hand, is absolutely NOTHING like the book. In fact, with the exception of setting,the NAMES of the characters and a single bare bones main plot thread (Lena being claimed) this movie has NO resemblance to the book that it is supposedly based upon.

Obviously, I am not a nitpicker. I loved The Hobbit. So I don't mind alterations for big screen adaptations. But Beautiful Creatures goes far beyond an "adaptation." At best it is vaguely inspired by a novel by the same name. I mean, seriously -- the entire freaking thing is totally different. Major characters that are essential to the plot in the book series simply do NOT exist in this movie. It would be akin to removing Haymitch from The Hunger Games!

Now lots of comparisons have been made to Twilight. Let's get this straight -- the NOVEL is NOTHING at all like Twilight! Other than the fact both are Fantasy YA and have a romance, they aren't similar in any way. Is this movie? Well, I'm not sure. I was so distracted by the fact that major characters don't exist, the ones that do act completely out of character and the entire theme of the romance part of it (which is only ONE thread in the books) is completely turned on it's head in the film. I mean, it is EXACTLY the opposite. The acting was decent, but for fans of the book series, the script was a mess! I suppose I could say more about it, but at this point, what's the point? I still have the fourth and final installment of the series to read. And I think I'll do that, rather than mourn the loss of what could have a pretty darn good, and far deeper film that the Twilight series. 

But alas it wasn't -- at least we will always have the books!