A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. She rises to be the land's fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal – an act that begins to turn her heart into stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading King's successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom – and to Maleficent's true happiness as well.
Nice re-interpretation of the sleeping beauty children's tale. Angelina Jolie has some really good moments in which a simple smile from her can make you shit your pants, although the interpretation is, in some parts, irregular. Elle Fanning is not a good option as "the Beauty" in the same way Kristen Stewart wasn't for Snow White. Angelina eats completely her role as Charlize Theron eat Stewart's. Sharito Copley has a great performance, as always, and the FX are really decent.
When I first read about this movie I was not entirely sure whether I liked the idea or not. After having watched it I have to say that I really liked it. It is a nice fairy tale based on the Sleeping Beauty but from the perspective of the evil fairy (who is not really that evil actually) instead. As far as I am concerned the concept worked surprisingly well.
Obviously the story is highly rewritten compared to the original Sleeping Beauty story. Whether that is good or bad is probably a matter of personal opinion. I think it is good since it allowed to story in the movie to have its own merits and not be too dependent on the original. It works for me since the original story is not very present except and thus you do not get any annoyed e...
Today, June 4, I went to see Maleficent on the birthday of its star, Angelina Jolie. In itself, nothing more than a funny coincidence, although when you think about it, it is customary for someone who is celebrating their birthday, to hand out treats. And boy, this was the best treat ever.
Three reasons why I was completely stoked to see Maleficent after hearing about it for the first time about a year and a half ago: 1) I love Angelina. 2) I love Sleeping Beauty. 3) Maleficent is my favourite fairy tale villain of all time. On the other hand, I was also a little wary of the way they had apparently altered the story. See, if there is one thing I hate in films, it's when they explain and justify the motives and reasons why a certain chara...
Good watch, would watch again, and can recommend.
I'm not a big Angelina Jolie ("Lara Croft: Tomb Raider") fan, but she definitely nailed the part, and I felt for her when those things happened, so I'm definitely not going to say she's not a good actor.
Elle Fanning ("The Great") is great, mostly an annoyingly happy little thing while she's awake, alongside wonderful supporting cast and gorgeous (and sometimes goofy) CG animated creatures.
Disney definitely poured money into this to make it look great. They also spent quite the effort to revitalize the story. After rewatching "Sleeping Beauty" and some other variations (I did fail to reread the original story), I am definitely a fan of the direction they took. The original story...
Not as dark or deep as I was expecting/wanting, but it is cool to see a different telling of 'Sleeping Beauty'.
Angelina Jolie fits as the titular character, bringing with her a good performance. Elle Fanning (Aurora), Sharlto Copley (Stefan) and Sam Riley (Diaval) play their respective roles well enough, but neither come close to matching Jolie - as you'd probably expect.
I found the special effects a bit iffy. It's not that it looks anything close to bad, I just thought it could've looked better. The score isn't all that memorable, either. I did enjoy how the plot unfolds though, mainly thanks to the lead admittedly.
Intrigued to see what the sequel to 'Maleficent' has to offer.
TL:DR
An enchanting retelling of a classic story which really holds it's own with the changes in it's story-line. If you love magical worlds, definitely give this one a watch! (7/10 on the Dragon-Scale for including two very badass dragons!)
I truly appreciate the modern trend of humanizing the "villains" in a story, real life is rarely as simple as: 'This person is just evil.' and it allows for so much more depth and emotional investment in both protagonists and antagonists.
Hats off to the visual effects team for making the Moors feel truly enchanted, with many magical critters and beautifully strange fauna all pining for your attention. Everything feels like it has it's own personality through their movement and design, making...
Good movie seeing how maleficent became maleficent. Pretty bogus what they did to her. Now she fights to get her wings back.
Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" is easily my favourite Walt Disney adaptation and this film takes up on by far the best character from that delightful animation - the wicked witch "Maleficent". It tells us how this true epitome of wickedness was actually quite a good-natured elf until an evil king duped her and stole her wings. Now that had to hurt - not to mention get her a touch irked, so she set out on a vengeful existence culminating in a curse on the young Princess "Aurora". As per the novel, the three good fairies take the princess to hide in the forest but the crafty witch tracks them down almost immediately and has some fun manipulating them all as the baby grows to womanhood, at which point this story takes an unexpected turn (from th...