Faxlandez Family Blog

We just got home from a free advanced screening of Beauty and the Beast in IMAX. It was absolutely phenomenal and has taken it’s rightful place as my favorite movie ever.

Let’s rewind a bit to Tuesday when Anthony managed to snag us both free tickets to the advanced screening at Cinemark 17 and IMAX. If you’re a quick-clicker, you should sign up to receive the notices here (click the link at the top right to sign up for email notifications). Many times Anthony sees the email a little late, but this time we happened to be on our way to a Doctor’s appointment so he was bored in the passenger seat (this was Pre-Nintendo Switch days). The tickets for various showings around the US were all gone within 30 minutes.

Fast forward to today, at 4pm we arrived at Cinemark 17 and IMAX to a line of about 50 people. We quickly joined the line, pulled out the Nintendo Switch and proceeded to kill some time while waiting to be seated. At about 5:45 the Cinemark crew let us in a few at a time, by far one of the best lines for an advanced screening that we’ve experienced so far. Once in the theatre we snagged two end seats in the middle, secured our snacks, and settled in just in time for the pre-show. Good news is, you can see the pre-show if you missed it as it was live-streamed on Facebook. The pre-show included a live Q&A with the director and cast, check it out now:

Honestly, you should watch this before you to go see the movie. It doesn’t spoil anything (if you saw the original, you know the whole plot) and it points out some great things you should watch for!

After about 30 minutes of that (by this point we’d finished our mini-pizzas from the Pizza Hut within the movie theatre), we braced for impact.

Warning: I don’t claim to have spoiler-free posts, so if you are super duper opposed to spoilers come back after you’ve seen the movie. That said, I try not to spoil anything that important if I can help it.

The movie started with a breathtaking dance, which set the place for the entire movie. I knew then we were in for a truly unique experience.

I won’t say too much about the movie itself, since I know many are afraid of spoilers and others want to form their own opinions, but I will say these few things:

• I cried 3 times, I don’t think I was really supposed to cry more than once but it felt necessary… maybe it’s just my cycle, who knows!
• They made very few changes from the “original” that was released back in 1991. The plot was unchanged and there were minimal tweaks throughout including 1 new song as Josh Gad discusses in the above video. I think the main reason they stuck so close to the original is that having a live-action remake was revolutionary enough! The critics that complain they didn’t “make a statement” or change it up enough are clearly missing the point.
• This will be the version of Beauty and the Beast that we will show our future children.
• I got chills twice, once when Belle and the Beast were dancing in the great hall This was such an iconic time and they did it great justice.

In summary, this movie was able to take an iconic, historic film that was part of many of our childhoods and combine it with the magic and spirit that is the live theatre. I truly felt that I was watching a live showing and that the cast was there with us tonight. If anyone needs me I’ll be ordering a replica yellow dress on Esty and dreaming of becoming Emma Watson… just kidding, but this chills from this movie are going to keep me feeling all sparkly for a few days at least!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I give the movie 5 stars, because it truly deserves it!