Maleficent curses us with mediocrity.

"Eh, it could be better."

Maleficent had promise to be magnificent but mediocrity made it miss the mark.

Disney made a masterpiece many years ago with the original animated classic "Sleeping Beauty." It had heart, a classic story, and best of all a villian to despise. Maleficent ranks with the likes of Darth Vader,  the Wicked Witch of the West, and Cruella DeVille. Like all good villains, we love to hate them. Star Wars Episodes I-III tried to make Vader sympathetic and his fall from good into evil wasn't convincing. Elphaba's rise from a tragic figure to success only to fall again lessens here evil ways. And Cruella, well,  she's wonderfully wicked. What Disney does to Maleficent is tragic in its own way.

Maleficent starts with letting the audience know this is not the story we know. The Narrator/Maleficent didn't warn us this would be the story no one knows. It reimagines the traditional story of "Sleeping Beauty" and you have to forget EVERYTHING you know about the classic. Now, this follows on the heels of a movie that reinvented a series after 60 years without sacrificing anything about the original.  I am of, of course, talking about Godzilla (2014). Maleficent can learn a thing or two from the King of the Monsters. Instead, Maleficent borrows from the pages of Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland and Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Quick synopsis: Maleficent is unique among the fair-folk in that she is human sized and has large bird-like wings. A human boy wanders into the moors where the fair-folk live and they begin a forbidden friendship since fair-folk and humans do not get along after the war. He gives her the kiss of true love but then turns to the greedy ways of man and chops her wings off to become king. Maleficent turns evil and broods for years until Aurora is born and bestows the curse upon her. The king hides Aurora with three fairies and they raise her. However, due to the idiocy of the three fairies Maleficent secretly raises the child and becomes her fairy godmother, showing Aurora the fair-folk and the moors, and letting her see all of fairy kind. After becoming attached to the child she despised, Maleficent tries to retract the curse, but can't. Aurora escapes from the three fairies, escapes to her fathers castle, and pricks her finger. Maleficent finds Prince Phillip, brings him to the castle, he kisses her, and the curse is not lifted so he just leaves. Maleficent is grief stricken and then kisses Aurora on her head and she wakes up. A big battle ensues, Maleficent gets her wings back, and her and Aurora unite the fair-folk and the humans. Happy Ending. 

Where to begin? First off, I did enjoy the creature design. The fairfolk were unique and fit in the world that surrounded them. They were similar in design to creatures seen in the world of Oz. I could have easily imagined the two worlds being one. However, the human world was bland and uninteresting. Set design and costumes where lacking and the grand scale was lost in a grey color palette. Minor things, but they add to the feel of the movie, which may have been better off as a mini-series than a full-fledged movie. It didn't look like the production value was there. The characters known as Merriweather, Flora, and Fauna are now dim-witted fairies who really serve as only a plot device and nothing more. Sad for such beloved characters to fall to the back drop.

Second, do not play the Frozen card here. Not ever. What Frozen did with turning the idea of true love on its head was powerful. It was the first Disney movie to move into a modern era where love is not only between and a prince and a princess. Maleficent takes the same idea and somehow, after only one time, turns it into a cliche. Plus, it deviates from the original story entirely. 

Third, the story really ended up telling us a whole new "Sleeping Beauty" under the guise "Maleficent" so people would see it. Maleficent was wasted as a character, given a bland, overdone, back story, and placed into someone else's story to provide an outlet to make sequels. She didn't look like Maleficent, she only wore here traditional black robes once, never turned into a dragon, didn't have evil minions, and was never really evil. She also had more in common with the human world than she did the fairy world, playing the role of a martyr. While the rest of the fair-folk were bug-eyed and the more animalistic one's were artistic, Maleficent was very much a human with horns and wings. She fell to the same pitfalls humans did and was no better than them. Where is the villain from the original? Does this movie even fit into Disney canon now or, like Star Wars, this movie creates a brand new canon to work from? Maleficent was a beautiful evil, pure and dark. Maybe evil needs to remain in the shadow so it can be evil. To plot and plan with its own infernal devices and schemes and reveal itself when the time is right.


This will work for mass audiences as Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful have. I am just disheartened to see such a vile villain succumb to mediocrity and be forgotten for the evil deeds she has done. After all, that's why I cheered for her.