However this movie turns out, it will certainly have been one of the most eagerly anticipated releases of the past couple of years. So, with little ado, here’s the final trailer for the live-action adaption – Beauty and the Beast. Comments after the jump.
I don’t exactly know what I was expecting, except that I wasn’t expecting it to be so … flat. Alright, to be fair, a trailer isn’t anywhere near enough to judge an actor’s performance by, but Emma Watson, the titular Beauty, seems to have graduated from the Winona Ryder school of acting. Based on the trailer alone, it feels like the emotional range of her face goes from vapid to open-mouthed disgust – with no stops in between.
Don’t get me wrong. I like Emma Watson. She’s heartbreakingly pretty, her accent makes me feel smart just listening to it, and her advocacy for women is exactly what this screwed-up world needs right now. But her acting chops just leave much to be desired.
I think it’s the eyes, more than anything else. Like Tom Cruise’s eyes, they remain oddly vacant even when the face around it goes through all sorts of contortions mimicking human emotion. Which is unfortunate because the cartoon Belle had one of the most expressive faces of all the Disney Princesses.
But maybe that’s just me. What do you think?