Beauty and Beast Goes 21st Century in This Beastly Trailer

I'm so very confused about this trailer for Beastly. It's kind of campy at first, dramatising the personality of its douchey protagonist named Kyle (Alex Pettyfer), as he dismisses everyone in his high school who's not as good-looking as he is. But things really go over the top with the addition of an, um, teen witch in the form of Mary-Kate Olsen, who curses him with ugliness, purring that he has a year to find someone to love him in this form. 

Vanessa Hudgens is the substance-over-style outcast he connects with and it's all very Twilight. But then—wait for it—a blind Neil Patrick Harris shows up. Yep, say it with me: "eh?" Apparently NPH is some sort of tutor and I don't know if this makes the movie look better or not. Then, they pull out their trump card: emotive Death Cab for Cutie classic "Transatlanticism." It gives a false sense of depth to a film that I fear may need a little help in that area. I do tend to enjoy melodramatic romance, though, so maybe I'm looking a little too critically at Beastly. Anyway, catch the trailer below and tell me what you make of it all.

Keep reading