Now if you're expecting this film to be connected to the classic Disney film, only to be a live action film through the point of view of the classic Disney villain Maleficent, your numbers are way off. In fact, this film's story bares so little resemblance to the animated film that it's best to forget everything you know and loved about the animated film, and look at it as a completely different film. The story starts out with Maleficent as a little fairy with giant wings, and she and a poor human boy named Stefan fall in love. As the years go by, Stefan gets a chance to become King if he kills Maleficent and brings the dying king proof. Instead of killing Maleficent, he instead steals her wings and claims to the king that she's dead, which automatically makes him the new King. A heartbroken Maleficent takes revenge on Stefan by cursing his baby Princess Aurora by giving her a deep sleep once Aurora pricks her finger on the spindle of a spinning before her 16th birthday, only to be awaken by true loves first kiss. Three fairies raise Aurora deep in the woods in a cottage, but Maleficent finds her and instead of carrying out the curse, she watches over her as the years go by, and when Aurora reaches the age of 15, she and Maleficent meet and start having a close friendship. Maleficent tries to lift the curse, but it turns out that it's out of her hands and that the curse will go on until the sun sets on her 16th Birthday. You know I expected a change in plot, but this isn't what I had in mind. If you hate the change of plot, then it's best that you don't see the film. Do I think it works, ON WITH THE REVIEW...
The actress playing the live action counterpart of Maleficent is Oscar winning actress Angelina Jolie. Looking at her in the trailers, she looks good enough to play the role of this classic villain. In fact, when going into the film, I was thinking that she will give a great performance. However, after finally seeing her in the film, all I can say is she looks like Maleficent, but her acting as Maleficent wasn't as great as I thought it was going to be. Now granted, she does have a few good scenes, especially during an emotional moment with her and a sleeping Aurora, but for the majority of the film, she gives a bland and dull performance. When she tries to act dramatic and evil, I know she's trying, but I'm not convinced at all that she's in pain or threatening. Basically, the only thing she does a good job with throughout the film, is posing in almost every single shot as this character. Now about the plot, it's pretty obvious that Disney is taking the "Wicked" route like they did in "Frozen" by making our main character a sympathetic character than a villain. In fact, the film even rehashes a key scene from "Frozen". While I enjoyed that concept being done in "Frozen", this film delivers it so poorly with it's uninteresting characters, dumb storyline, and bad acting, that I feel like that Disney is trying to go for the "Twilight" look, though to be fair, this film is more entertaining than "Twilight".
Elle Fanning as Aurora, while her performance isn't bad since there is a likability to her character and performance, as well as having more screen time and actually doing something productive when Aurora in the animated film did nothing, but act as the Disney Princess cliche; I'm sorry, but her performance and character is not as memorable as the original Aurora. While the original Aurora is a bland and cliche character, there was still such a strong likability and charm to her that to many of us it was hard not to be enchanted by her, or at least not to forget her. Aurora in this film, is likable and the actress does make some good use out of the little things she's given, but in the end, my memory of her, when compared to all the other characters begins to fade and fade. By the way, the fairy's gift of giving her the power to never be blue, sure has worn off pretty fast! Now here's a part of the plot that I liked, but hated at the same time. While the scenes with Aurora and Maleficent are nice, I'm sorry, but Maleficent's plan of revenge against King Stefan makes little to no sense. She curses Aurora to get even with Stefan (Which is a better motivation than being snubbed at a party), but once she finally finds her, instead of carrying out the curse, or letting the baby die in near death situations, she actually helps raise her, and save her from her near death experiences, despite the fact that she's not only a tool for revenge against King Stefan, the man who betrayed her, but also the fact that she doesn't like children! Why the sudden change of a heart? Was the part of her curse that she'd be loved by everyone she meets rubbed off on Maleficent as well; did she have a sudden change of heart because there's some good left in her, I mean dude, just a day or two ago you just cursed Aurora, with no remorse or second thoughts at all. If the film showed a struggle of Maleficent being good or evil when she first finds Aurora, then maybe I'd buy into it, however, since she decides to help watch over her with no struggle or attempt at carrying out the curse at all, I'm not buying the sudden change of heart.
Sharlto Copley as King Stefan gives a really bad performance. His performance is bland, his evil and threatening looks feel forced, but what killed it the most is his phony accent. It's got to be one of the worst accents that I've ever heard. It's so bad, that I actually find myself chuckling on a few occasions, especially when he loses his cool. It's that freaking bad. The villain himself is boring and forgettable as well, he's not even written well. The villain even has a past with Maleficent, and he still isn't interesting or complexed as the film tries to make him out to be. Nothing much else to say, except that he's a forgettable villain with a bad, but funny accent.
Now for the supporting characters. Let me start with the characters that I hate the most in this film, and this is sad because they were my favorite characters in the original film, those characters are the three Fairies. My god, do I freakin' hate them! Unlike the Fairies in the original film who were smart, humble, fun, heroic and likable; the Fairies here are so over the top, so annoying, so stupid, so unfunny, and so idiotic, that I just want to smash them with my bare hands! The Fairies in the original had their fun and dumb moments, but there was enough character and a good balance of humor to make it work. Here, they're like freakin' Jar Jar Binks, as well as having no brains what-so-ever. I have never seen Disney destroy such good characters since they turned Captain Hook into a Swiper type villain from "Dora The Explorer" in the show "Jake And The Neverland Pirates"! Remember, how much I criticized how boring the Prince was in the original film, here he is so boring, so forced, makes like maybe a few short appearances in the film, and does nearly 100% nothing in the film, that there was no need to put him into the film at all! If there was one character I liked throughout the film, just one, it has to be Maleficents henchman Diaval (Sam Riley). His performance is fun, entertaining, and the fact that Maleficent can change him into many different forms (Mostly being his original Raven form) is really cool! The characters not one of the best or greatest characters I've ever seen, but at least he was more entertaining, interesting, and cooler than all the other characters especially Maleficent herself.
The film as you may have guessed, is heavily done with CGI. While some may consider the CGI very phony and obvious, I actually found myself so enchanted by the artistic look and creative designs for the creatures and Fairies living in this Fairy kingdom, that I actually thought it was good. It's nothing groundbreaking, or something that I consider to be as great as "Avatar" or "Sin City", but there's such a creative and magical touch to it, that I found myself enchanted under the film's illusion. However, I will admit, the design for the Dragon that Maleficent's henchman transforms into (Yeah, Maleficent doesn't change into a dragon) wasn't that creative or cool, and the CGI for the wolf that the henchman also turns into looks very computerized as well. By the way, don't you just love that when he turns into a Wolf, a group of Knights that have swords just run away for their life? I wonder how they would act during a battle at war? The score in the film is just as bland and forgettable as the film itself. However, Lana Del Rey's cover on "Once Upon A Dream" that's played during the credits, stopped me from exiting the theater, and had me literally sitting down on my chair to listen to it. It was that good of a cover!
So that was Disney's "Maleficent", and while I don't think it's a good film, I don't think it's all that bad either. Don't get me wrong, the concept and new take of the story is lame, most of the acting is either bland or bad, and the characters are either forgettable or annoying as heck, but as bad as all that is, I was still entertained by this film, than wanting to fall asleep. Most of the CGI is very artistic and creative; as bad as most of the performances are, for the most part they're still at least entertainingly bad; Angelina Jolie as much she looks like she's modeling throughout the film, she at least has a few good scenes; and the relationship between Aurora and Maleficent, as out of left field as it is, I still surprisingly felt a connection between the two. I honestly don't think that this is a film that I will see again outside of reviewing it, but I guess if your kids, siblings, friends etc, etc, want to see it, they'll be entertained by it fine, just don't expect to get something dark, heavy, depressing, or meaningful. It's a bad movie, but it's not that insultingly bad, or as boring as it sounds, and there are a few things that make the film worth watching.
RATING 2/5
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