I finally saw the 2014 Beauty and the Beast and I really loved it despite bad critical reception. Let's start with the costumes and visuals.

Costumes and Visuals
The costumes are stunning! Each of Belle's dresses are so beautiful, and blow the 2017 Belle's wardrobe right out of the water. What I loved is how the film is set in Victorian times so the normal costumes are very drab and gray but the castle was set in the (16th/17?) century before the curse hit so the costumes are from that era which happens to be my favorite era fashion-wise. Belle's ivory dress is my favorite and she looks like a real princess with the headpiece on her golden locks. I especially love her sleeves her. Her emerald green dress has such a breathtaking color and the same goes with her cobalt blue/teal and bright red dresses. I also love the Beast's red outfit and how it pairs well with each of Belle's costumes (white, green, blue). The castle is absolutely gorgeous and I love how in the centuries since the curse, the castle is not only luscious with rich splendor but also infused with nature. The mirrors in each of Belle's dreams are breathtaking as is Belle's room. My favorite is the water tank and especially the iridescent backdrop to it (I can't figure out what it is made of though). I love the shots of the castle and especially the one where Belle is standing up high and gazing at the view. Such a beautiful shot and better than anything I remember in the 2017 version, whose cinematography wasn't up to par imo. The fact that I can't remember a stunning shot in the 2017 version is testament enough. Cinderella's 2015 version had beautiful shots which I can still remember but for some reason, I can't remember much from the 2017 BATB. More beautiful scenes in this film were the staircase woven in a rich tapestry of flowers and vines and the dinner table. The ballroom scene was so much better executed than in the 2017 version which is really a shame because the ballroom scene is only associated with Beauty and the Beast from Disney. So Disney really should have topped their own scene or at least delivered something just as good. They did that on Cinderella so BATB should have been no exception. I'm glad though that this version had an amazing ballroom scene so at least one live-action BATB got it right, even if it was the wrong one imo. The far better costumes in this version definitely add to it imo.

Belle
Belle has much more personality than Emma Watson's bland portrayal. I love how she likes to talk a lot which infuriates the Beast and also makes jokes and quips. Her fear is natural but I love how she is just as quick to grab a knife to defend herself and tells the Beast to kill her if he plans to rather than make her wait for death. Also how like Disney's Belle, she is willing to take her father's place, especially since she is more responsible in this version for what happens.

The Love Story and the Past Life Theory
I have to agree though that the love story is very contrived because they don't spend much time together and what time they do spend involves the Beast not acting very kind to her at all. The love story is practically nonexistent especially when Belle only sees his positive side in her dreams where he is with the princess. Luckily, unlike most viewers, I can see the reason why this is. I believe Belle is the reincarnation of the princess. In the original fairytale, Belle is actually the daughter of a fairy and a king so she is a princess with fairy blood. This version removes the fairies but swaps them out for nature gods and nymphs. By that logic, it makes sense that Belle is the reincarnation of the nymph because the nymph wanted to live as a human. After her death it makes sense that she would reincarnate into a full human life. Even in the original story, the merchant's youngest daughter is swapped for the princess Belle so a supernatural royal child taking on a new life as a merchant's daughter isn't anything new. There are other clues to Belle being the reincarnation of the princess. When she dreams of the prince and princess dancing, she suddenly starts to swap into the princess's role. The forest god listens to Belle when she begs him, and I can't see him doing that for anyone else, considering how vengeful he is. Especially since I doubt he would go out of his way to let some random girl fall in love with the man he cursed for killing his daughter, unlike this new girl is his daughter. The golden magic is constantly following Belle and we see it emits from the arrow that killed the princess, so that's another connection. The strongest one is that when the princess bleeds, her blood turns into roses and the same happens to Belle (and this occurs to both of them when they are in the presence of the God of the Forest). Also in the original fairytale, Belle and the Beast do not meet by chance but their encounter and love is predestined and orchestrated by the fairies. This makes sense with this version too with the golden light helping Belle to see the Beast in a new light. If she dreams of her past life where she once loved the Beast, it makes sense that she would suddenly fall in love with him again. Especially, because she is warmer to the Beast everytime she sees him in real life, even if she isn't sure yet that he is the prince, but her soul recognizes him unconsciously. Without this explanation, it makes little sense that Belle would love the Beast. The Beast also seems to love Belle from the beginning and feels sadness that she will not love him back from his appearance, but that takes on new levels if it's because in her new life, the princess would not recognize the Beast as his prince. This is the only thing that explains why the Beast loves this random girl he has never met before, especially since he was so devoted to the princess. So him recognizing his lost love's soul in Belle explains their connection and why he loves her off the bat and also why he gives her gowns and jewels to dress her up as a princess (and she looks like a princess in that first scene in the ivory dress when they first meet and he is standing behind her). Even how they meet, because the merchant picks a rose fits with this predestined to fall in love again and be reunited because the tree of roses is created from the princess's death. Her dripping blood creates this majestic tree and all the roses are borne from her. The roses created from the princess's blood would be the Beast's last connection to her so that explains why he is so defensive of the merchant picking a rose. In most fairy tales, they never explain why the Beast is so angry about the merchant picking a rose, especially when the Beast provides him with so many other treasures. Only in the original does it make sense, because the fairy caused the merchant to go to the Beast's castle and told the Beast to hold the merchant prisoner for stealing a rose for the specific purpose of leading Belle here, so the event was orchestrated by higher beings. I also liked how the princess and Belle are similar in their love for the Beast but also different. The princess is more subservient like a 16th/17th century princess likely would have been, but Belle never backs down from the Beast, not even upon their first meeting when she is still convinced he is going to kill/rape/eat her. She's much stronger and I think that also explains why the Beast is so annoyed by her at first because he isn't expecting that and is used to her previous more docile personality. It shows a natural progression on Belle's part between her two different lives and how she has become stronger since her death/betrayal.

The Villain, the Middle, and the Climax
So I think the love story really does work if you consider Belle to be the reincarnation of the princess. The villain(s) didn't work for me as well. I really liked Astrid and thought that though she shares the same amount of screentime as Perducas, she is more well-developed. Perducas is very generic and doesn't work like Gaston or Avenant in previous versions. His plotline really takes up a lot of time in the beginning and ending of the film, which is why the middle part of the film is my favorite because it focuses completely on Belle's life in the castle with Beast. I would have liked to see her explore more since the original story has Belle discover libraries, gardens, painting galleries, magical monkeys and birds, and a theatre room. The dogs didn't bother me as much as I thought they would. They appear very creepy at first but they get cuter as the film goes on although I'm not sure why the God of the Forest thought to curse them into these new forms...they don't really look that much different besides the bigger heads and huge eyes. Since the original story also had magical creatures (the monkeys and birds), I don't mind the dogs' inclusion. I think monkeys and birds would have been more original though but I guess dogs turning into monkeys/birds wouldn't make as much sense as the dogs mutating into a different form. And dogs fit the Beast better since they were his hunting hounds. Also I forgot to mention earlier, but the dogs also instantly take a liking to Belle which makes sense since they liked her in her previous life as the princess. The narration explains that they became Belle's best friends which is odd since we never really seem them much together in the film, unless you take into consideration her past life. I really liked the narration although I know some people complained that they break out of the story too often, but I didn't mind that. The climax was exciting even if Perducas takes too much screentime. People complained about the giant statues being in the vein of all recent CGI fairy tale films that have to have some epic battle (Alice, Snow White and the Huntsman, Jack the Giant Killer) but I didn't mind it. Statues are in the original story as well, albeit in a much lighter form, but I think the revamp to them works really well here. Once more, I wouldn't mind the climax so much if only Perducas had been better developed. He has absolutely no connection to Belle so I think I might have preferred him being a suitor like in previous versions than just someone her brother owes money to. Maybe they could have combined the elements, by making him desire Belle and then emotionally blackmail her into marrying him because her brother owes him so much money. So he comes at the end to claim what he thinks is his (Belle and the treasures).

Belle's Siblings
I'm glad they kept her brothers from the original story as well as her sisters. Making them 3 of each is much more manageable than 6 of each in the original story. People complained that her sisters were too sweet and not Belle's rivals in this version but that's not really true. They are still more vain and materialistic, but they aren't the villains of the story and still retain love for Belle even if they don't see her in the same rose-tinted way that her brothers and father do. I'm glad for that because it's closer to the original story where they are jealous of her but oddly have affection for her at the same time (even if the former often outweighs the latter). I also liked how her brothers have more of a role here since usually they are just around to prop Belle up and make her even more loved than she already is, to contrast to her sisters. They become really boring characters from only having the characterization of just loving their sister, so I'm glad this version gave them their own interests and flaws.

Final Thoughts
Ultimately, I really loved this version. I know people say it's just good for the costumes and visuals and otherwise is inferior to the Disney version and the original 1946 version (which this is a remake of) but I really loved it. The main flaws aren't really flaws if you have read the original stories and thus understand the parallels. Most people's complaints were that Belle and the Beast didn't have a convincing love story, the gratuitous CGI characters like the statues and dogs, the sisters not being villainous enough, the inclusion of the God of the Forest and the Beast's first love in the form of the princess, and finally Perducas. All of those issues become fixed if you know the source material except for Perducas who is also the weakest link to me. The only other complaint was I guess the narration technique but I enjoyed that. I also love how the ending shows a different type of happily ever after from both the original story and most fairy tales. I thought the ending was abrupt at first because after the Beast's transformation back into a prince, we just fast-forward to the future. I would have liked to have seen Belle and the Beast's reunion, but I suppose it wasn't necessary and probably the film is stronger for fast-forwarding through that. I love how every character gets a quick write-up at the end so we know of their fates, but especially how Belle and the prince are both happy at the end in her little cottage rather than the crumbling castle. Royal life is what tore them apart the first time so it makes sense that they would be happier together in a more "provincial life." As a whole, I liked it as much as the 1991 one. Still haven't seen the 1946 version so can't compare it to that yet but hopefully I'll see that soon. Although I loved the 2017 version, I felt that was the most flawed of all these versions, and mainly because the 1991 version is so good that it simply doesn't compare. Even though the 2014 version is technically a remake of the 1946 version (and the 1946 version is considered a classic of cinema), it isn't a play-by-play remake like the 2017 one is of the 1991 one. It's very different from what limited stuff I know about the 1946 version, and I'm glad this film is completely different from that. I had completely different expectations for this film unlike the 2017 version which is probably why I enjoyed it better. However, I think that's fair because the 2017 version will obviously elicit more comparisons and pretty much it was unanimous that it was good and maybe even great but not excellent like the 1991 version. So I like this 2014 version as much as the 1991 version when I want a take closer to the original fairytale and not the Disney version.