Review 2: Maleficent

Maleficent

(or . . . Sleeping Beauty, from a Slightly Different Perspective)

Disney's Maleficent came to the big screen on May 30, 2014. The film promised to deliver the untold story of one of Disney's greatest villains of all time. Promises are funny things - don't make a promise you can't keep. Maleficent tells another version of Sleeping Beauty, rather than Maleficent's story from the 1959 animated classic. Simply put, the film doesn't deliver what it promises.

This film has a number of interesting problems. First, it seems like someone took a bulleted list of the most iconic moments from the animated Sleeping Beauty and tried to explain them away with rather lackluster and flimsy explanations (or in some cases, over explanations). For instance, why does Aurora prick her finger on a spinning wheel? Because that's the item that Maleficent sees while cursing the young princess. Seems rather unsatisfying. In contrast, we spend a great deal of time on setting up why Maleficent chooses sixteen as the magic number to curse Aurora, but it's just tossed in the mix. This happens throughout the course of the film, especially in the beginning set-up that seems like wasted plot exposition.

Second, there are a number of logical problems throughout the film. For instance, in the opening we see a young Maleficent heal a broken branch on a tree. Yet for some reason (that doesn't get a needed explanation) she cannot heal her own wings. Perhaps her magic doesn't work on herself? Who knows, but it would have been worth an explanation. Also, why would King Stefan (who is really the villain of the film) hand over his child to a bunch of idiotic pixies? Especially when the relationship between fairy kind and human kind is already strained and they take the child to a cottage that is dangerously close to the Moors, where Maleficent dwells? Also, why are the pixies idiots? And why does Maleficent turn the raven into a man, except to have someone for Maleficent to talk to?

Third, flat characters. Maleficent as a character shines quite brightly and Angelina Jolie gives an amazing performance. But the other characters fall utterly short of being remotely two dimensional. Their motivations are mysterious or overwhelming singular (I'm looking at you King Stefan). Only Maleficent is fleshed out as a character and even she is almost unrecognizable in her actions from the character she is based off. She appears to lack all of her powers (such as turning into a dragon, appearing and disappearing in green flames, and traveling as a will o' the wisp). The audience is sympathetic to Maleficent, who does have an arc to her story. But she has the only story arc. The other characters fade into the background and are grossly overshadowed by Maleficent.

Speaking of shadows, the film itself if very dark for much of the duration. Sometimes it was hard to actually make out what was going on in many scenes near the end. The human world was quite dismal to look at and seemed to have no redeeming qualities. There was no understanding or sense of the scope of the kingdom and the people who lived there.

Okay, now for some good things. Angelina Jolie as Maleficent and the overall story arc for her character were quite good and it comes full circle by the end. There is a nice little story in this clunky film about the power of true love, in this case, between Maleficent and Aurora. This story helped pull the movie together. Yes, it sounds a lot like Frozen, but it works here as well, though you can see it coming a mile away.

We get some fun creatures in the Moors, but we don't get too much of them.

Final Thoughts:

Maleficent is a story about the truth behind Sleeping Beauty, not so much about the Maleficent from the 1959 animated film. In fact, forget that and just remember the names of the characters. Once you discover that fact, the film can be quite enjoyable. Don't go into this film expecting to think for yourself. If you do, you will be disappointed. The information the film wants you to know will be spoon fed to you (though it leaves out and doesn't satisfyingly explain things). It has some fun and especially sweet moments between Maleficent and Aurora and I wish the film was focused on the 16 years that Maleficent spent with Aurora waiting for the curse and their relationship, rahter than giving unnecessary backstory in the form of effects sequences that does not help move the movie along. Also, it would have been really nice to have more fleshed out characters who mean something and have motivations, rather than characters there for the sake of continuity of the 1959 animated classic (especially when these characters do not resemble each other in any way besides their names).

*Perhaps if I see it again knowing that it is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty and without the false pre-tense that this movie is about the origins of Maleficent from 1959 animated film, I might have a different perspective. Thanks advertising department at Disney for setting my hopes high and not delivering on your promise of telling the untold story of Disney's greatest villain.