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‘maleficent’: film review.

Angelina Jolie and Elle Fanning topline Disney's reimagining of "Sleeping Beauty."

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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No stranger to larger-than-life characters, Angelina Jolie doesn’t chew the estimable scenery in Maleficent — she infuses it, wielding a magnetic and effortless power as the magnificently malevolent fairy who places a curse on a newborn princess. Her iconic face subtly altered with prosthetics, she’s the heart and soul (Maleficent has both, it turns out) of Disney’s revisionist, live-action look at its most popular cartoon villain, the self-described Mistress of All Evil from 1959’s Sleeping Beauty . A few bumpy patches notwithstanding, the new feature is an exquisitely designed, emotionally absorbing work of dark enchantment. With the production’s star wattage, well-known source material and multipronged branding push, the studio should see its $175 million gamble on a first-time director stir up box-office magic both domestically and in international markets.

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As the Broadway musical Wicked did for the Wicked Witch of the West, the movie humanizes Maleficent by creating an origin story, revealing a shocking betrayal that turned the kind fairy vengeful. Reworking an age-old tale that has undergone countless variations over the centuries, the screenplay by Linda Woolverton ( Beauty and the Beast ) draws from Charles Perrault ’s 1697 “La Belle au bois dormant” and the animated Disney feature that gave the spiteful character a name and a deliciously sinister personality — which Jolie deepens while still finding the kick in it. There’s no hundred-year sleep in the new film’s timeline, and the handsome prince is a bit player in a story whose true center is a love that has nothing to do with happily-ever-after romance.

The Bottom Line With a dynamic blend of live action and effects, this is a dark, dazzling and psychologically nuanced fairy-tale reinvention.

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But magical fairy-tale elements still abound in the debut helming effort of Robert Stromberg , production designer on Avatar and a longtime visual effects artist whose credits include Pan’s Labyrinth , The Hunger Games and Life of Pi . “Let us tell an old story anew,” the film’s voiceover narration begins, setting a tone of once-upon-a-time with a twist. (The opening scenes were written by an uncredited John Lee Hancock for late-in-production reshoots.) Though the narration sometimes states what’s already obvious, Janet McTeer delivers it with mellifluous and warm authority.

Those early scenes show the blossoming love between two orphans: a compassionate fairy girl named Maleficent and a human boy, Stefan. Played as kids by Isobelle Molloy and Michael Higgins , and as teens by Ella Purnell and Jackson Bews , they grow apart as adults. Jolie’s Maleficent is busy as protector of the moors, and Stefan is driven by ruthless ambition to attain his kingdom’s crown. He’s played by Sharlto Copley as the epitome of cravenness — a far cry from the just, noble and dreamy kings of many a childhood story, including the source for this one.

To secure that crown, Stefan commits an act of unspeakable cruelty against Maleficent. The mutilation takes place offscreen, but its effects are fully felt; Maleficent’s heartrending reaction recalls Jolie’s cry of anguish as Mariane Pearl in A Mighty Heart . To call Maleficent a woman scorned would be the mildest of understatements. And so her cruelty is understandable, if not justifiable, when, in a scene of beautifully orchestrated suspense and terror, she attends the christening of King Stefan’s child, Aurora, and casts her under a spell, dooming her to begin a very long nap at age 16, after the famously foreordained incident with a spinning-wheel needle.

The teenage Aurora, appearing three-quarters of an hour into the movie, is played by Elle Fanning with a preternatural brightness. (Jolie’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt takes her screen bow as the 5-year-old princess.) The opposition between the innocent, openhearted girl and the hate-filled fairy queen has the necessary archetypal pull, and their initial meeting, in the night forest, is one of the most striking sequences in the Disney canon.

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There’s a diamond-in-the-rough aspect to Aurora’s loveliness; she’s no conventional Disney Princess but a child of nature with a strong sense of justice and an innate toughness — qualities that link her to the young Maleficent. Assuming that Maleficent is her fairy godmother and not her nemesis, she befriends her, and gradually Maleficent grows protective of her unwitting victim and conflicted beneath her poise. As in  Brave , there’s a deeply felt maternal bond informing the action, but in this case it’s one defined not by blood but by affinity and respect. A prince ( Brenton Thwaites ) shows up — on a white horse, no less — but he’s hardly a key element of the drama.

The separate worlds of lovers-turned-enemies Maleficent and Stefan are divided by a wall of thorns and vividly imagined, defined in ways that bridge the stylized (inspired by the animated feature and vintage illustrations) and the richly textured organic. Stromberg and producer Joe Roth have enlisted a team of ace collaborators, and for the most part the film seamlessly combines the work of the actors with the costume design by Anna B. Sheppard , the production design of Gary Freeman and  Dylan Cole , and the Carey Villegas -supervised visual effects.

The enchanted moors combine a misty, painterly quality with a make-believe sparkle, although the resident mud creatures, with their Darth Vader voices, are as distracting as the rock monsters in Noah . On the human side, there are quintessential storybook settings, august castles and expansive fields of war. The 3D, though unnecessary, lends a subtle depth to the visuals.

The most extraordinary visual effect, though, is Jolie’s transformation into the title character. With the help of prosthetic appliances, contact lenses and a team led by creature-design whiz Rick Baker , Maleficent has iridescent eyes and cheekbones like knives. Jolie gives her a regal bearing and an ultra-composed way of speaking. In battle scenes that are integral to the story but whose scale and clamor feel like concessions to contemporary action-movie norms, Maleficent is right in the fray, a Valkyrie facing down invaders.

Tempering her rage and intensity is the raven Diaval ( Sam Riley , equipped with beaklike schnoz), Maleficent’s shape-shifting sidekick of sorts. Their back-and-forth has a comedic edge. Providing broader comic relief and whimsy are three tiny pixies played by Imelda Staunton , Juno Temple and Lesley Manville through a combo of performance capture and CGI. Entrusted by the king with caring for Aurora before her fateful 16th birthday, they snap out of their pixel-based bodies into human size but remain hopelessly  pixilated — clownishly inept at childcare.

The comedy is never overstated, whereas the swell and bombast of James Newton Howard ’s score comes on strong in the early sequences before finding a groove. For most of the movie, Stromberg strikes the right balance between intimacy and spectacle, and Dean Semler ’s fluent camerawork reveals the invented world with a sophisticated take on the primal play of darkness and light.  

Production companies: Roth Films Cast: Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Lesley Manning, Brenton Thwaites, Kenneth Cranham, Ella Purnell, Jackson Bews, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Eleanor Worthington-Cox, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Janet McTeer Director: Robert Stromberg Screenwriter: Linda Woolverton  Producer: Joe Roth Executive producers: Angelina Jolie, Michael Vieira, Don Hahn, Palak Patel, Matt Smith, Sarah Bradshaw Director of photography: Dean Semler Production designers: Gary Freeman, Dylan Cole Costume designer: Anna B. Sheppard  Editors: Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson Composer: James Newton Howard Senior visual effects supervisor: Carey Villegas Special makeup effects artist: Rick Baker

Rated PG, 97 minutes

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Maleficent Review

Hell hath no fairy..

The best thing about Maleficent is the actress playing the titular character. Angelina Jolie is captivating, funny, grounded yet appropriately theatrical, and entirely appealing as the dark and misunderstood fairy. Unfortunately, the world she inhabits in this film is inconsistent at best and frustratingly silly and manufactured at its worst. The final lesson's not a bad one. In fact, the film finds a way to give a modern spin to the moral of the story. It's a solid and valuable takeaway. A bit predictable perhaps, but nice, and certainly meatier than it could be. The road to get there is just far too bumpy. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Roth Cornet is an Entertainment Editor for IGN. You can chat with her on Twitter: @RothCornet , or follow Roth-IGN  on IGN.

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Review: Angelina Jolie is wickedly good in the not-quite-classic ‘Maleficent’

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In re-imagining the infamous evil queen who curses an innocent girl, “Maleficent” is very much a cautionary tale for modern times. It essentially begs the question — are you sure it was the shrew that needed taming?

It stars a wickedly good Angelina Jolie as the legendary Maleficent. In her hands, the queen is endlessly fascinating and worlds away from the fairy tale staple that so many generations have been introduced to via Disney’s animated “Sleeping Beauty” (1959). The new film’s position is clear and uncompromising on the question of who was in the wrong.

Unlike “Sleeping Beauty,” “Maleficent” explains all: motivation, regrets — from the queen’s point of view. This multifaceted Maleficent has wit and empathy as well as rage. Jolie hasn’t looked like she’s had such fun with a role since 2005’s “Mr. & Mrs. Smith,” though her “Kung Fu Panda” Tigress does have a bit of an ironic growl.

The other players in Maleficent’s sphere and the bones of the ancient story will feel familiar, based as it is on the animated movie and one of 17th century French writer Charles Perrault’s folk tales. But the spine of it has been changed by screenwriter Linda Woolverton. She joined the Disney fairy tale business with 1991’s animated hit “Beauty and the Beast” after a lot of work in episodic TV. Veteran art director Robert Stromberg directs.

Like most fairy tales, there are good and evil metaphors for little ones and grown-ups alike. In that regard, “Maleficent” is Disney’s most adventurous female empowerment parable yet as it explores how the age-old power struggle between men and women shapes the identity of both parties. Though it never plays like a polemic, the film has so much it wants to say the emotional power that might have made it a classic is undercut — that is the other power struggle going on in the film.

Despite the bumps, “Maleficent” is visually striking from its watercolor palette to its ethereal woodland creatures, the ones that rise from the earth have the kind of fearsome look and power that might frighten little ones. Stromberg’s mastery of the craft earned him art direction Oscars for his work on “Avatar” (2009) and “Alice in Wonderland” (2010), and you can feel the imprint of that artistry in every frame.

Along with a crack creative team that includes cinematographer Dean Semler, production designers Gary Freeman and Dylan Cole, costume designer Anna B. Sheppard and senior effects supervisor Carey Villegas, the filmmaker creates a world that sits on the edge of fantasy and reality. James Newton Howard’s score is a lovely accompaniment.

Though the film starts earlier, Maleficent’s primary beef is with Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who grows from a charming ordinary boy (Michael Higgins as the youngest, Jackson Bews as the teen) into a weak man desirous of being king.

Aurora is the infant Maleficent curses for her father’s crimes, and as a youngster she’s played by one of Jolie’s little ones, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, followed by Eleanor Worthington-Cox. The luminous Elle Fanning steps in as Aurora at 16, pricking her finger on a spindle and falling in a death-like sleep while she awaits true love’s kiss. Oh, but so much happens before we get there.

We first meet Maleficent in simpler times. She is a fairy too, but one who looks like an ordinary girl (Ella Purnell) — with wings. No one rules her side of the world. It isn’t necessary. Her days are filled with magical creatures whose mischief is entertainment enough.

The bad times begin with King Henry (Kenneth Cranham), a power-hungry, land-grabbing monarch who first tries to conquer Maleficent and when that doesn’t work demands her head. Stefan uses his boyhood friendship to get to her. Though he doesn’t have the stomach for murder, what he does provides the film’s most chilling scene.

That Maleficent’s wings are clipped when she gets too powerful serves as a potent allegory for glass ceilings. The arc of Maleficent from innocent herself to evil queen is as much about survival as revenge. And the price exacted for getting to the top is a high one. It plays even more ironically in the wake of the recent firing of the New York Times’ first female editor, Jill Abramson, and the descriptions of her management style as, well, shrewish.

Much of the film revolves around the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora as the girl grows up. A trio of tiny fairies — Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Flittle (Lesley Manville) and Thistlewit (Juno Temple) — who buzz around offering opinions and stirring up nonsense with their magic are somehow charged with raising the girl. They do a job of delivering many of the film’s lighter notes.

This is Jolie’s film because of the Maleficent she makes. Everyone else, even Aurora, fades in her presence. When she is on the screen, she is all you really see. In addition to an uncanny resemblance to the animated queen — those legendary cheekbones enhanced to an even sharper edge, those horns — the actress creates a queen who may not be easy to love, but she is hard to hate. The black-and-white stereotypes are replaced by far more subtle shadings, the sneer that so characterized the original Disney queen is softened.

And we haven’t even gotten to the curse-breaking power of true love’s kiss. You will likely see this twist coming, but it’s a nice one anyway.

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‘Maleficent’

MPAA rating: PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images

Running time: 1 hour, 37 minutes

Playing: In general release

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Former Los Angeles Times film critic Betsy Sharkey is an award-winning entertainment journalist and bestselling author. She left the newsroom in 2015. In addition to her critical essays and reviews of about 200 films a year for The Times, Sharkey’s weekly movie reviews appeared in newspapers nationally and internationally. Her books include collaborations with Oscar-winning actresses Faye Dunaway on “Looking for Gatsby” and Marlee Matlin on “I’ll Scream Later.” Sharkey holds a degree in journalism and a master’s in communications theory from Texas Christian University.

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A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land. A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land. A vengeful fairy is driven to curse an infant princess, only to discover that the child could be the one person who can restore peace to their troubled land.

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• Trivia On the second day of the Disney D23 Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center, Saturday, 10 August 2013, Angelina Jolie admitted that she scared little kids while in costume on the set of Maleficent, with one kid actually saying, "Mommy, please get the mean witch to stop talking to me." She adds that her daughter, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt , who played young Aurora, was the only child who was not scared of her.
• Goofs Spinning wheels don't have sharp spindles, and most drop-spindles are not sharp enough to puncture skin. The distaff on a spinning wheel, however, is often this sharp. The distaff is the pointed bit that holds the wool (or other fiber) waiting to be spun. Disney has perpetuated this falsity to the point where few American children know the difference.

Maleficent : [before kissing Aurora to awaken her from her enchanted sleep] I will not ask your forgiveness because what I have done to you is unforgivable. I was so lost in hatred and revenge. Sweet Aurora, you stole what was left of my heart. And now I have lost you forever. I swear, no harm will come to you as long as I live. And not a day shall pass that I don't miss your smile.

• Crazy credits The usual Disney castle in the opening credits is replaced by the castle used in the movie.
• Alternate versions German theatrical version was cut (ca. 40 seconds) by the distributor to secure a "Not under 6" rating.
• Connections Featured in Showreel: Jasmine Kills Again (2013)
• Soundtracks Once Upon a Dream Melody composed by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for the ballet "The Sleeping Beauty" (1890) Performed by Lana Del Rey Produced by Daniel Heath (as Dan Heath) Written by Sammy Fain and Jack Lawrence Arranged by Julian Shah-Tayler (uncredited) and Daisy O'Dell (uncredited) Remixed by Raffertie (uncredited)

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• Jun 1, 2014
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• May 30, 2014
• Angelina Jolie as Maleficent; Elle Fanning as Aurora; Sharlto Copley as Stefan; Lesley Manville as Flittle; Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass; Juno Temple as Thistletwit; Sam Riley as Diaval; Brenton Thwaites as Prince Phillip

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Positive Elements   |   Spiritual Elements   |   Sexual & Romantic Content   |   Violent Content   |   Crude or Profane Language   |   Drug & Alcohol Content   |   Other Noteworthy Elements   | Conclusion

Movie Review

Maleficent wasn’t always all horns and vitriol. She didn’t spring from the womb flinging curses and bashing the nurses with her magic staff.

In fact, she was pretty nice.

As a girl, she fed the animals and played with her forest friends and soared over her magical moors with those nifty wings of hers. She was patient and kind and maybe even a little wise. When a young human boy from a neighboring (and often hostile) kingdom snuck into the moors, Maleficent didn’t turn him into a beetle—not even when she learned that he’d pilfered a gem-like rock. She just made Stefan give it back. And then she, in turn, gave it back to the lake from whence it came.

“If I’d known you were going to throw it away, I would’ve kept it,” Stefan said.

“I didn’t throw it away,” Maleficent corrected. “I took it home. As I’m going to do for you.”

See? Nary a curse thrown. And Stefan and Maleficent took that awkward beginning and turned it into an unlikely friendship. As they grew older, it became something more. They shared a kiss—a kiss, Stefan told her, of true love.

But life has a way of bending us, fraying us, twisting us out of shape. Our disappointments mount, our hurts gather. Sometimes, something in us breaks.

Tensions between Maleficent’s strange little land and its neighboring kingdom continued to mount. Wars were started. Stefan stopped coming around. Then one day, there he was again—bringing a word of warning and a hand of friendship. And Maleficent was grateful. For an afternoon, it felt like she had her friend back. So secure she felt with her old pal that when he offered her a drink from his flask, she took it.

And she fell asleep in his arms.

When she awoke, her wings were gone, taken by the man she loved. Her body was broken. Her heart was crushed. And in the shards and fissures of her fractured soul, something else began to fill the spaces—a venomous mortar, cementing together a new, dark Maleficent. And by the time she casts a spell on Stefan’s newborn daughter, Aurora—sentencing her to a deathlike sleep from the prick of a needle—those horns on her head had come to look oh so fitting.

[ Spoilers are contained in the following sections. ]

Positive Elements

You might’ve guessed by now that Maleficent is quite different from the tale we’re familiar with in Disney’s 1959 film Sleeping Beauty . One of Disney’s most memorable villains becomes a much more complex, more human figure here.

Despite appearances, this fearsome fairy is far from being bad to the bone. Sure, she curses Aurora and calls the little girl a beastie . But when the infant squalls in hunger, it’s Maleficent’s raven that feeds her (while Aurora’s clueless caretakers plop raw veggies in her crib). Maleficent saves an older Aurora, too, from tumbling off a cliff. She watches the girl throughout her childhood, in fact, always professing the greatest disdain but betraying a strangely maternal instinct. Her influence is so great that when a much older Aurora sees Maleficent for the first time, the young woman calls the older woman her fairy godmother—recognizing her instantly by her shadow.

A strange relationship forms, and Maleficent becomes the closest thing Aurora has to a mother—which, naturally, makes Maleficent feel awful about the whole curse thing. She tries to remove it, but the strength of her own magic makes that impossible. So she sets about doing what she can to mitigate it—shepherding a prince into the castle to provide “true love’s kiss” or, if that doesn’t work, striving to keep the sleeping princess safe. She sacrifices a great deal for the girl. And in the end, Maleficent—this grandest of Disney villains—proves to be the movie’s most heroic character.

Aurora is blessed with a generous and gregarious spirit, and she loves and appreciates everyone she runs into. Prince Phillip, for his part, seems quite the chivalrous chap, even wondering if it’s appropriate to kiss a girl (especially a sleeping girl) whom he’s just met. And Aurora’s fairy guardians … well, at least they mean well.

Spiritual Elements

Maleficent is saturated in magic—a wizardry familiar to almost all fairy tales. Unlike the 1959 movie, where Maleficent seems explicitly linked to the forces of evil, the titular character in this movie wields a more Narnian sort of magic, twisted into its evil shape by her own twisted heart. She can make things levitate, turn beasts into people (or other beasts) and has control over the woods themselves (crafting a thorny barrier between her kingdom and the human realm). Someone sees Maleficent and says, “It’s a demon!”

Aurora’s three fairy protectors (Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistletwit) are also magical; we see them bestow blessings on the baby Aurora and then disguise themselves as human peasants. It’s worth noting that Aurora is cursed at her christening, a ceremony with explicitly Christian connotations (which includes infant baptism).

Sexual & Romantic Content

As mentioned, Maleficent and Stefan share a kiss. Prince Phillip plants that now famous true love’s kiss on the sleeping Aurora.

Violent Content

This flick is, in a way, a war movie—and darker than you might expect. In one battle, men are routed by monsters made of wood and root, who smash and throw their adversaries around. (Some unfortunates seem to be taken down into the earth by gigantic root serpents.) In another, men set fire to Maleficent’s fearsome wall of thorns. But the thorns themselves come alive to attack and force the guys to flee. A dragon blasts fire at soldiers and is himself brutally subdued with swords, spears and chains. Encountering a handful of soldiers in the forest, Maleficent turns her faithful raven into a really scary wolf (slavering and growling), then levitates the soldiers—sending them flying into trees and one another. Folks are choked.

One would assume that fatalities would arise from these sorts of encounters, but it’s hard to be sure. There’s little blood to speak of, and only one person is definitively killed in battle—plunging from a huge tower to fall onto the cobblestones below. (We see a crumpled body.) Two others die offscreen.

Maleficent is extraordinarily sensitive to iron. It burns her badly, and we see the marks (which quickly fade) appear on her skin at times. Stefan makes the most of this weakness, forcing her to walk through a barrier of sharp iron spikes, struggle with an iron net (which is dropped on her) and, of course, fight iron-bedecked people carrying iron shields and weapons. He nearly used an iron knife to kill her while she sleeps, but decides he can’t do it and cuts off her wings instead. (We don’t see the mutilation, only the stumps. The wings are then displayed as a trophy of war.)

Aurora pricks her finger, of course, and we see a bit of blood. Fairies get into comical slapping, pushing, hair-pulling fights. A bird, trapped in a net, is nearly killed by soldiers.

Crude or Profane Language

Drug & alcohol content.

Stefan tricks Maleficent into drinking a powerful sedative.

Other Noteworthy Elements

Maleficent is a tricky little movie for Plugged In to review. The violence is dark and jarring—a bit extreme for a modern PG-rated film. And it’s saturated with all sorts of magic, which’ll make it a complete nonstarter for some Christian families. For those who can’t push away the Maleficent we meet in Disney’s 1959 film—one who named herself “the mistress of all evil” and who explicitly called on the “powers of hell” to aid her—the transition to this version can feel dissonant. Viscerally, we don’t always want to see our “favorite” villains redeemed.

But redeemed she is. And it’s a pretty stylish redemption.

When we first meet Maleficent, as mentioned, she’s just a nice little girl who happens to have horns and wings. And it’s telling that when she loses her wings—symbols, perhaps, of the better angels of her own nature—she turns bad. She grieves their loss, as would we. Most of us know what it feels like to have something taken from us unfairly. It’s terrible, and how much more so if it’s a physical part of us. We all know the temptation to let that hurt fester until it becomes something else: bitterness, anger, an obsession with vengeance.

Augustine of Hippo tells us that evil is not a thing in itself: It is a hole, a corruption of something God originally wanted to be good—a twist or a tear or a blot on its original design. Darkness is the absence of light. Cold is the absence of heat. Maleficent suffers greatly in the absence of her wings—a painful mangling of her true self. The loss of those wings physically corrupts her, and the loss corrupts her soul too.

But here’s the beautiful thing: As evil as Maleficent becomes, there is still part of her original nature—her original design—wedged deep inside. And the only thing that can find it is love. Someone loving her, yes, but more importantly, the process of loving that someone—Aurora—back.

Maleficent isn’t the easiest person to love. But, then again, neither are we. And in our real world, Jesus loves us dearly no matter what. His love for us helps make us more lovable—and love others better in return. Love Him in return.

Maleficent shows us, in her world, that love is far more powerful than any sort of magic she wields or iron that Stefan swings. The love of a mother is particularly strong—and that is what Maleficent becomes. Not Aurora’s biological mother, of course, but her adoptive mother, who loves her with a ferocious gentleness that is touching to behold.

Maleficent, when she allowed for an antidote to Aurora’s curse—true love’s kiss—was being her evil self. She believed then that “there is no such thing.” Stefan taught her so. And yet she learns that love is real and beautiful and powerful, just like we read in the Bible. With love, true love, no one is beyond saving. Not Aurora. Not Maleficent. Not even us.

Paul Asay has been part of the Plugged In staff since 2007, watching and reviewing roughly 15 quintillion movies and television shows. He’s written for a number of other publications, too, including Time, The Washington Post and Christianity Today. The author of several books, Paul loves to find spirituality in unexpected places, including popular entertainment, and he loves all things superhero. His vices include James Bond films, Mountain Dew and terrible B-grade movies. He’s married, has two children and a neurotic dog, runs marathons on occasion and hopes to someday own his own tuxedo. Feel free to follow him on Twitter @AsayPaul.

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Film Review: ‘Maleficent’

This visually arresting fairy tale fails to offer a satisfying alternate history on 'Sleeping Beauty.'

By Andrew Barker

Andrew Barker

Senior Features Writer

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Now almost midway through the year, 2014 seems unlikely to produce many more visually arresting, brilliantly designed, stoned-college-kid-friendly pieces of eye candy than Disney ’s “ Maleficent .” As for its revisionist take on the travails of the iconic “Sleeping Beauty” villainess, however, it falls far short of something an imaginative fan-fiction scribe, let alone obvious role models John Gardner or Gregory Maguire, might have crafted from the material. Uncertain of tone, and bearing visible scarring from what one imagines were multiple rewrites, the film fails to probe the psychology of its subject or set up a satisfying alternate history, but it sure is nice to look at for 97 minutes. Boasting an impressive and impeccably costumed Angelina Jolie in the title role, it ought to prove a solid global moneymaker and merchandise-minter for the Mouse House. 

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Of the four fractured fairy tales produced by Joe Roth (“Oz the Great and Powerful,” “Alice in Wonderland,” “Snow White and the Huntsman”), “Maleficent” is the one that hews closest to its source material, and it’s not always clear whether this helps or hinders. Directed by first-time helmer Robert Stromberg from a script credited to “Beauty and the Beast” scribe Linda Woolverton, the film has a clever enough big-picture take on the “Sleeping Beauty” tale, yet it sputters and snags as it tries construct a coherent emotional arc, and its reference points from the 1959 animated original feel more dutiful than inspired.

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Opening with storybook-themed voiceover narration, “Maleficent” sketches a realm of two rival kingdoms – not Stefan’s and Hubert’s, but rather the world of humans and the outlying moors, which are home to fairies, trolls and imposing wickermen. Darting around the moors like a sort of saucer-eyed Tinkerbell is the winged young fairy Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy), who strikes up an unlikely friendship, and later romance, with a trespassing human farmhand named Stefan (Michael Higgins).

Alas, their love is not to be, as a poorly explained war breaks out between the two kingdoms years later, and the adult Stefan (Sharlto Copley) betrays Maleficent (Jolie) by drugging her and cutting off her wings, all in the name of a job promotion. (To be fair, going from farmboy to king is one hell of a jump up the employment ladder.) Now a woman scorned and shorn, Maleficent fashions a magical staff from a twig, dons a black helmet, and takes memorable revenge on Stefan’s infant daughter, Aurora.

Granted the proper grace notes and breathing room, this sequence of events could have provided more than enough material for a dark stand-alone prequel – indeed, it took George Lucas three full features to complete a very similar character arc for Anakin Skywalker. However, “Maleficent” is only just now getting started, and the next two-thirds of the film see our erstwhile antihero hiding in the bushes outside Aurora’s cabin in the woods, serving as an unlikely “fairy godmother” and rethinking her curse, while Aurora’s bumbling guardians (Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple) prove entirely incompetent babysitters.

Already a double Oscar winner for his work as an art director, Stromberg knows how to visualize a scene and exactly where to place the camera, but storytelling requires different muscles, and the film often lurches where it ought to flow, rarely latching onto the proper rhythm. It isn’t until roughly halfway through the film, for example, that Maleficent cracks her first joke, which is so out of character that it initially sounds like a blooper.

While the film avoids the two-hour-plus bloat of “Oz” and “The Huntsman,” this is a story that would actually benefit from some slow-paced indulgence. Or at least, better instincts for where to make cuts. For example, an expensive-looking yet utterly inconsequential battle sequence plopped into the middle of the pic sees Maleficent neutralize a squadron of nameless soldiers with neither motivation nor consequences, but the scenes in which she bonds with the 16-year-old Aurora (Elle Fanning) – ostensibly the most important, emotionally weighty relationship in the film – feel rough and rushed.

While Fanning’s Aurora is relegated to a supporting role (and Brenton Thwaites’ Prince Phillip a glorified cameo) Jolie is perfectly cast in the lead, and does excellent work despite substantial physical constraints. She spends the entire film wearing a prosthetic nose, cheeks, teeth and ears, with moon-sized contact lenses and a bulky set of horns atop her head. (Master makeup magician Rick Baker is in stellar form here.) Her movements are often strictly dictated by how best to frame her silhouette. She has few lines that aren’t delivered as monologue, and her most frequent co-stars are digitally rendered creatures. That she manages to command the screen as well as she does in spite of all this is rather remarkable.

It’s also a performance that begs for flourishes of high camp that the film rarely allows. When Jolie is let loose to really bare her fangs, such as her nearly word-for-word re-creation of Maleficent’s first scene from the Disney original, she strips the paint from the walls. (Her primary deviation from the script here offers a peek at the kind of unhinged delight this story could have been in braver hands, as she forces Stefan to his knees and hisses, “I like you begging; do it again!” like a proper Reeperbahn dominatrix.) Yet one is much more likely to see her wordlessly glowering from behind trees and palace walls, as though just another finely crafted visual effect.

As for the actual effects themselves, the level of craft on display here is exquisite. From the swooping shots around Stefan’s castle to the lava-lamp-like floral arrangements that dot Maleficent’s lair, the film’s armies of art directors, costumers and effects technicians aim for the spectacular with every shot, and nail it with impressive consistency. Musically, James Newton Howard’s sweeping score locates a nice sweet spot somewhere between Erich Korngold and Danny Elfman, and Lana Del Rey’s gothy take on the “Sleeping Beauty” showstopper “Once Upon a Dream” makes for a fitting closer.

Reviewed at Arclight Cinemas, Sherman Oaks, May 22, 2014. MPAA rating: PG. Running time: 97 MIN.

• Production: A Walt Disney Motion Pictures release and presentation of a Roth Films production. Produced by Joe Roth. Executive producers, Angelina Jolie, Michael Vieira, Don Hahn, Palak Patel, Matt Smith, Sarah Bradshaw.
• Crew: Directed by Robert Stromberg. Screenplay, Linda Woolverton, based on Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” and “La Belle au bois dormant” by Charles Perrault. Camera (color, 3D), Dean Semler; editors, Chris Lebenzon, Richard Pearson; music, James Newton Howard; production designers, Gary Freeman, Dylan Cole; costume designer, Anna B. Sheppard; supervising art director, Frank Walsh; sound, Chris Munro; supervising sound editors, Frank Eulner, Tim Nielsen; re-recording mixers, Gary A. Rizzo, David Parker; stereographer, Layne Friedman; senior visual effects supervisor, Carey Villegas; visual effects producer, Barrie Hemsley; assistant director, Richard Whelan; second unit camera, Fraser Taggart; casting, Lucy Bevan.
• With: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley, Brenton Thwaites, Isobelle Molloy, Michael Higgins, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington-Cox. Narrated by Janet McTeer

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Angelina Jolie is one of the last movie stars, although in recent years, Hollywood has seemed mostly unable to fashion projects that would demonstrate why. Her work as Maleficent, the bad queen from Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” is a reminder of how electrifying and fun she can be. 

Jolie first played the part in 2014’s “ Maleficent ,” a live-action (but thoroughly CGI’d) fantasy drama that reimagined the story from the character’s point-of-view, ultimately treating her as more of a volatile antihero enacting grievances upon the land than a straight-up villain who existed to do mean things and be vanquished. Her razor-sharp prosthetic cheekbones, elegant horns, and velvety wings seem to spring organically from the sorts of roles Jolie played before she took a sharp left turn into more neutered or saintly roles in the mid-aughts—particularly the title character in HBO’s “Gia,” and the Jack Nicholson-like rebel she played in the mental hospital drama “ Girl, Interrupted ” (winning an Oscar in the process). Her Maleficent voice channels old movie stars (Joan Crawford especially), and she’s never more delightful than when the character is trying to keep her witchiness under wraps and failing.

The sequel “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” would seem like a perfect complement to the first film, because it’s built around a clash between Jolie and another great ’80s and ’90s star, Michelle Pfeiffer . But having set up this potentially juicy conflict, and having detailed a scenario that would put it front-and-center while deepening Maleficent’s relationship with her human goddaughter Aurora ( Elle Fanning ), the movie repeatedly fails to get out of its own way. The result is a disappointment that’s more crushing than an outright bad movie would be. The original, despite its flaws, had moments of primal power and deep understanding of what drives people, qualities that are mostly lacking here.

Pfeiffer plays Queen Ingrith, the mother of Prince Phillip ( Harris Dickinson ), a human royal from a nearby kingdom who wants to marry Aurora. Aurora and Phillip see their impending union as a “bridge” joining the human kingdom and the magical creatures who live on the moors under the protection of Aurora and Maleficent (a bit of a “ Shrek “-y touch here). 

Unfortunately for both of them, and for everybody else, Ingrith is a genocidal hatemonger. The animosity between the two sides is larded with vague references to racist and genocidal regimes throughout history, as well as the current border crisis in the United States. Ingrith is furious when her husband, King John ( Robert Lindsay ), asks her to cease her nonstop invective and be on her best behavior during an engagement dinner at their castle. 

The long scene that follows is a high point for all of the actors, with resentments bubbling up even when everyone involved is trying to make peace. All of Ingrith’s choices are calculated to inflame Maleficent, from serving squab (which requires one winged creature to eat another) to furnishing the table with utensils made of iron (according to the mythology established here, faeries are allergic to iron).

But the script doesn’t seem willing or able to escalate tension gradually, so that we can savor the characters’ psychology and the actors’ mostly sharp performances and feel as if this Disney sequel is trying to get at something deep and true rather than just take money from people who liked the first movie. The dinner becomes an instant disaster that leads to a state of open warfare. Maleficent gets back in touch with the faeries who used to live openly all over the world until human hatred and violence drove them literally underground, where they live in a series of caverns and tunnels.

The scenes between Maleficent and her lost fellow winged creatures are sincerely staged by filmmaker Joachim Rønning ,  who co-directed “Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales,” particularly Maleficent’s prolonged entrance to the kingdom though a series of spiraling tunnels; but once they’re all gathered together, discussing grievances and plans, the film starts to feel like one of those big-budget cable or streaming fantasies that has more money than imagination. At least  Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ed Skrein make a strong impression as, respectively, a sensible and cautious character and a rebel hothead.

The stage is set for a clash of armies, with the winged creatures trying to figure out how to penetrate a perimeter guarded by huge crossbows loaded with iron bolts. The final war feels more like a Marvel CGI mayhem-fest or a battle episode of “Game of Thrones” than anything in the traditional Disney animated canon, and the lead-up expends prodigious amounts of time on court intrigue (including the question of whether a major character was poisoned, and by whom) that could have been more usefully spent on continuing to develop the major characters. 

Worse, the story seems incapable of dealing with the issues that it makes a point of raising. Ingrith’s racism (species-ism?) marks her as a villain, one seemingly driven mad with rage, but we know from real life that even if we hate people who hold these views, they’re still members of a family, and that makes the dynamics in the household complicated and painful for everybody else. The movie gives little thought to what the war does to Phillip, whose own mother is the architect of the clash, and only slightly more thought to Aurora, who seems a bit quick to accept that the surrogate mother who raised and protected her must be taken out of the picture for the greater good, or so that the wedding can go forward. (It’s clear that Ingrith only wants the wedding to proceed so that she can have an excuse to, in the words of Kurtz in “Heart of Darkness,” “Exterminate all the brutes.”) The climactic settling of scores is particularly cowardly in this respect: Ingrith all but vanishes from the movie, saving the filmmakers the trouble of dealing with anything more complex than “bad lady who did bad things is not a threat to the nice people anymore.” 

What went wrong? At some point maybe we’ll get the full story, but this certainly looks like a case where a hit property was retooled in hopes that it could appeal to a wider demographic (i.e. boys who sometimes get antsy when a story concentrates too much on marriage, love, family and all that icky stuff). The screenplay is credited to “Beauty and the Beast” writer Linda Woolverton and the team of Micha Fitzerman-Blue and Noah Harpster , and the placement implies that the latter rewrote the former. 

But whatever the ratio of good ideas to bad, and regardless of where each bit came from, the result is a cascade of mostly unremarkable live-action fantasy imagery, a jumble of textures and colors and cliched camera movements (like the opening “helicopter shot” flying over the realm, which is exactly how every other movie like this begins). The character designs are lackluster, too: the humanoid animals, the big-eyed “cute” characters seemingly modeled on Hayao Miyazki’s woodland creatures, and the borderline-creepy uncanny valley residents who are kinda-human-ish, all lack the spark of personality that Disney’s old-school animators could have produced with pen and ink. ( Imelda Staunton ,  Lesley Manville and Juno Temple , who play three good faeries who function a bit like the mice in “Cinderella,” somehow seem even more rubbery and toylike than in the first film.)

Worst of all, the movie fails to give Jolie the star vehicle she richly deserves, limiting her screen time in favor of new characters that aren’t as interesting, and increasingly conveying her most important relationship, with Aurora, in throwaway dialogue and bits of visual shorthand. The relationship between a fearsome and misunderstood mother with her daughter during the run-up to her wedding should’ve been the heart of the picture, not all this sub-Tolkien scheming and military strategizing. There are a few striking moments, such as Phillip’s first appearance, which is framed through the makeshift iris of Aurora holding up her crown, and a climactic exchange of looks between Aurora and her mother. But it all feels rushed-through and improperly considered, like a fairy tale told to a child by a grownup who’s tired and bored and just wants to go to bed.

Matt Zoller Seitz

Matt Zoller Seitz is the Editor-at-Large of RogerEbert.com, TV critic for New York Magazine and Vulture.com, and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in criticism.

• Angelina Jolie as Maleficent
• Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora
• Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith
• Harris Dickinson as Prince Phillip
• Juno Temple as Thistlewit
• Teresa Mahoney as Dinner Servant
• Sam Riley as Diaval
• Laura Jennings

Original Music Composer

• Geoff Zanelli

Director of Photography

• Henry Braham
• Joachim Rønning
• Linda Woolverton
• Micah Fitzerman-Blue
• Noah Harpster

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Film review: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Director: Joachim Rønning

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Harris Dickinson

Run-time: 118 min

Release date: On general release 18 October 2019

She’s bad, she’s good, she’s bad again. It’s hard to keep up with Maleficent, but one thing is certain: when making plans to meet the future in-laws, no one wants to hear, “Maleficent is coming to dinner”. That is an actual line of dialogue from Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, a vibrant if scattershot sequel to the 2014 hit. As a character piece, the sequel short-changes Angelina Jolie’s heroine/anti-heroine, of the glaring green contact lenses, black horns on her head and ultra-sharp prosthetic cheekbones. But as a fairy-tale action film, it is more colourful, energetic and absorbing than the first Maleficent .

In the original, Maleficent grew to love Aurora (Elle Fanning), the sleeping-beauty princess she had once cursed. But when that film earned more than $700m ($750m, £558m today) worldwide , it was goodbye to the happily-ever-after ending, and time to bring back her bad-fairy self. Plus, her name is synonymous with evil; she really doesn't have much choice.

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Aurora is now Queen of the Moors, the enchanted forest where she and Maleficent, her godmother, live. Special effects bring the place to vivid life, with a carpet of flowers that glows with light, multicoloured butterflies filling the air and adorable little creatures including Pinto, a variation on a hedgehog. She’s engaged to Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson), of the neighbouring kingdom of Ulstead, whose kiss failed to break the curse and wake her last time around. Good-hearted and bland, Philip is so nondescript you might not notice he’s played by a different actor from the first Maleficent.

The best casting choice was to add Michelle Pfeiffer as Philip’s mother, who makes the beautiful and elegant Queen Ingrith a wickedly entertaining villain, dripping with jewels, whose benign smile disguises her scheme to thwart the marriage and take over the Moors. She hides this plot from her son and her peaceful husband, King John (Robert Lindsay), but below her wardrobe room – filled with stunning, silvery gowns on mannequins – is a dank workshop where her minions concoct poisonous red dust which is lethal to fairies.   

The engagement dinner at which Maleficent meets Philip’s parents gives her an excuse to turn evil again. As tree branches move to form a bridge across a moat – even the small special effects are gracefully done – Maleficent reluctantly walks with Aurora to the King and Queen’s castle. Eager for her fiancé’s parents to like her godmother, Aurora gets Maleficent to hide her horns under a scarf, an inauspicious beginning to a dinner that ends with green bolts of light flying from the enraged Maleficent’s hands.

With her character veering from good to bad, and overwhelmed by special effects, Jolie doesn’t have to do much except pose, which she can manage expertly. She shows flashes of jealousy and anger, but mostly changes wardrobe.

As it goes along, the film feels more and more cobbled together from bits and pieces that don’t quite fit together. There are sporadic attempts at sly self-awareness – “This is not a fairy tale,” Queen Ingrith warns the naive Aurora – but not enough to make the film work on a sophisticated level for adults. There are hints of metaphor; creatures known as dark fae, with horns and wings like Maleficent’s, have been marginalised and cast out from society. They create a faint connection to real-life prejudice and hatred, but the idea is so faint it is beside the point. Chiwetel Ejiofor is practically unrecognisable under all the prosthetics as a fae who wants to reconcile with humans, while others of his kind want to go to war with them.

Alongside those half-hearted stabs at contemporary resonance, there are jarring retro touches. When Philip proposes to Aurora he gets down on one knee and holds open a box with an engagement ring, as if he were in a cheesy romcom. We want Aurora to have love, but the old-fashioned trappings are at odds with a film that wears its message about powerful women on its sleeve – and in its closing-credits theme song, You Can't Stop the Girl by popstar Bebe Rexha. With King John under a sleeping spell for most of the film and Philip being so dull, the men are largely side-lined while the warrior queens do battle.  

On the day of the wedding, as Ingrith’s schemes begin to take effect, fairies and humans fight each other inside and outside the castle. The faes fly into battle, human soldiers attack, and people are turned into goats. Aurora’s good fairy godmothers, Knotgrass, Flittle and Thistlewit (Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple’s heads attached to animated figures) try to escape Ingrith’s poison. The over-long sequence feels as if the sequel has borrowed left-over special effects from Avengers: Endgame for a big splashy ending. Until then, though, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil swoops you along with ease. Like so many Disney films, it is a commercial calculation with a just a splash of magic. 

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Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil Review

18 Oct 2019

Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil

The first Maleficent was a magnificently designed, too-densely plotted piece of fairy-tale revisionism, one that — just about — managed to redeem a character who cursed an infant. The good news is that this sequel has a better bad guy, Michelle Pfeiffer 's Queen Ingrith, who gives us a gloriously hateable rival to balance Jolie ’s imperious anti-heroine. There’s still a lot of work for a film that should really be for kids, but at least this builds to a genuinely epic conclusion.

First, however, we have to wade through some syrupy scenes. Aurora ( Fanning ) is now Queen of the Moors, the mistitled name of a mystical and mountainous fairyland, and she and Maleficent are concerned with the hunt for some kidnapped fairies. But when Prince Phillip ( Dickinson , taking over from Brenton Thwaites) proposes, Aurora must bring her scary godmother to dinner with the in-laws: King John (Robert Lindsay) and Queen Ingrith. It goes, as you might expect, disastrously for the wary, defensive fairy.

Maleficent ends up wounded and rescued by other 'dark fae' like herself, a remnant colony led by Chiwetel Ejiofor 's Conall and Ed Skrein 's more warlike Borra. There are hints of a love triangle but no more than hints: this film is far too interested in the insipid Aurora's attempts to figure out who is behind the plot, something that the audience knows from minute one.

It's refreshing and a little radical to see two armies led by women over 30.

Incoming director Joachim Rønning ensures that it all looks gorgeous, and costume designer Ellen Mirojnick ( The Greatest Showman ) does stunning work for Jolie and Pfeiffer in particular, one in high-fashion slink and the other armoured in white and pearls. But once again the plot is over-stuffed; too many scenes focus on cutesy fairy folk, and the competing philosophies of the two dark fae men are not always distinct. It’s sad because Maleficent herself is interesting, always at war with her own tendency to distrust, to attack, to lash out. In the same way that Frozen ’s Elsa chimed with little children struggling to control their feelings, this anti-heroine can be magnetic when she’s given a chance to hold the screen.

The good news is that it all builds to a gigantic struggle for the future of both kingdoms, as Ingrith lays out a surprisingly familiar theory of government and Maleficent finds a point of balance between trust and safety. It's refreshing and a little radical to see two armies led by women over 30 (even Ingrith’s chief hench-person is female), however magical their surroundings, and Rønning orchestrates the fight beautifully. Fanning even manages to occasionally find something useful for Aurora to do: no mean feat in a character essentially designed to be a simpering blank.

But you still wish that the filmmakers would trust in their leading lady to hold the attention, and slow down a little bit in order to give her a few more character beats. Let Maleficent be Maleficent, and revel in her goth greatness.

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Maleficent: mistress of evil.

• Common Sense Says
• Parents Say 31 Reviews
• Kids Say 53 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Powerful queens go to war in intense, dark fantasy sequel.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the even darker sequel to Maleficent , Disney's live-action retelling of Sleeping Beauty. After Aurora (Elle Fanning) becomes engaged to Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson), his mother, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), threatens not…

Why Age 10+?

War between the fae and humans leads to mass destruction and near-genocide of fa

Aurora and Philip kiss and embrace several times. A powerful warrior fae smells

Snarky insults: "You reek of humans," "humans are hilarious," "show them no merc

No product placement in the movie, but there are off-screen promotional tie-ins

Adults drink wine in goblets at a meal. Philip asks for "more wine" during a ten

Any Positive Content?

Everyone is capable of change, and individuals don't have to play into their rep

Maleficent loves Aurora and raises her to be queen of the Moors. Aurora is guile

Violence & Scariness

War between the fae and humans leads to mass destruction and near-genocide of fae via poisonous concoction that turns fae into dust (think Avengers : Infinity War ) or lifeless plants. Humans also kill fae with iron-based weapons/arrows. Humans are captured in the faerie forest. Screams. One beloved character sacrifices herself for the good of the fae. Someone curses the king. Maleficent is grievously injured twice; once, she technically dies. Aurora is injured and hurt.

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Sex, Romance & Nudity

Aurora and Philip kiss and embrace several times. A powerful warrior fae smells Maleficent in what seems like a sensual way but it's repulsion at her scent of humans. Another dark fae saves Maleficent, carries her, looks at her lovingly, protects her. Two little fairy creatures hold hands, kiss on the cheek.

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Snarky insults: "You reek of humans," "humans are hilarious," "show them no mercy," etc.

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Products & Purchases

No product placement in the movie, but there are off-screen promotional tie-ins to Maleficent-themed merchandise, including apparel, toys, accessories, and games.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Adults drink wine in goblets at a meal. Philip asks for "more wine" during a tense dinner. A lethal powdery concoction is used to poison and kill the fae.

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Positive Messages

Everyone is capable of change, and individuals don't have to play into their reputations or their darker natures. Reinvention and rediscovery are possible. On the other hand, Queen Ingrith's take on letting lies take hold until they're believed by a critical mass is negative -- but important. Empathy, collaboration, and teamwork are promoted.

Positive Role Models

Maleficent loves Aurora and raises her to be queen of the Moors. Aurora is guileless and loves her godmother, her Moorfolk subjects, and her fiancé, who is a kind and generous young prince. Conall, like King John, believes in peace and in striving for coexistence, not war.

Parents need to know that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is the even darker sequel to Maleficent , Disney's live-action retelling of Sleeping Beauty . After Aurora ( Elle Fanning ) becomes engaged to Prince Philip ( Harris Dickinson ), his mother, Queen Ingrith ( Michelle Pfeiffer ), threatens not only Maleficent ( Angelina Jolie ) but all of the Moorfolk. The fantasy violence is more intense here than in the first film: Frightening sequences include war, mass destruction, and a near-genocide of the fae/fairy folk (think Avengers: Infinity War -like deaths). Characters are seriously injured, and one beloved character sacrifices herself. At one point it seems like no one will get to live, much less find a "happily ever after." Characters drink wine, and romance includes a few kisses, embraces, and some longing looks -- but it's the love between mother and daughter that's really at the core of this story. Themes also include empathy, collaboration, and teamwork, as well as the possibility of reinvention and rediscovery. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Parent and Kid Reviews

• Parents say (31)
• Kids say (53)

Based on 31 parent reviews

What's the Story?

MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL is the sequel to Disney's popular 2014 Sleeping Beauty retelling , reuniting Angelina Jolie as dark godmother Maleficent and Elle Fanning as the lovely Aurora, queen of the Moors and all its fae/fairy folk. The bond between the two women is tested when Aurora accepts a proposal from her beloved Prince Philip ( Harris Dickinson ) of neighboring Ulstead. When Philip's mother, Queen Ingrith ( Michelle Pfeiffer ), demands that Aurora and Maleficent attend a celebratory family engagement dinner at Ulstead castle, Maleficent tries to be cordial -- until Ingrith openly insults her and the Moorfolk. In a moment of chaos, King John (Robert Lindsay) appears to be cursed by Maleficent, so Ingrith declares war on the Moorfolk. Meanwhile, Maleficent flees and is nearly shot down, only to be saved by fellow winged dark fae who've been hiding from humans for generations. Maleficent must decide whether to join her fellow fae to fight or to seek peace with the humans.

Is It Any Good?

Fabulous costumes, vibrant art direction, and the on-screen dueling of two Hollywood queens -- Jolie and Pfeiffer -- save this from being another uneven, unnecessary sequel. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is even darker and more violent than its predecessor. The manner in which Moorfolk are killed is as chilling as the disturbing moments in Avengers: Infinity War or War of the Worlds. But the brief scenes in the Moors, with its various fae creatures, are still enchanting for younger audiences. The romance, already established, isn't swoon-worthy here, but at least the future in-law troubles drive the paper-thin storyline.

Pfeiffer stands out as Ingrith, who's unwilling to entertain the prospect of peace with Maleficent and the fae. She's at her best as an ice queen mother-in-law with a penchant for war. Jolie is always a treat, but the subplot involving her original people is underwhelming, even with the always wonderful Chiwetel Ejiofor as one of the two dark fae vying for Maleficent's attention (the other, played by Ed Skrein, is a smarmy warmonger). The cast is stronger than the screenplay, so -- given the ( spoiler alert ) presumed happily ever after ending -- audiences may be left thinking/hoping that this is the last of the Maleficent films, but not the last of Jolie and Pfeiffer working together.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the violence in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil . How much violence can younger kids handle? What's the impact of media violence on kids?

How is the idea of love explored in the movie? Are there are kinds of "true love" other than romance? Which characters have a loving relationship, and which don't?

How does Aurora demonstrate empathy ? What other character strengths are depicted in the movie?

Do you think there should be another sequel, or do you feel this particular story is resolved?

Movie Details

• In theaters : October 18, 2019
• On DVD or streaming : January 14, 2020
• Cast : Angelina Jolie , Elle Fanning , Michelle Pfeiffer
• Director : Joachim Ronning
• Inclusion Information : Female actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Family and Kids
• Topics : Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More
• Character Strengths : Empathy , Teamwork
• Run time : 118 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG
• MPAA explanation : intense sequences of fantasy action/violence and brief scary images
• Last updated : February 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Summary Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king’s newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her l ... Read More

Directed By : Robert Stromberg

Written By : Linda Woolverton, Charles Perrault, Joe Rinaldi, Ted Sears

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Reviews

There’s a distinct feeling that the filmmakers wanted this sequel to feel as stakes-heavy and intense as something like Return of the King, which is honestly just too ambitious.

Full Review | Jul 10, 2024

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was a huge surprise for me, I found it vastly more enjoyable than the first film.

Full Review | Original Score: B- | Mar 8, 2023

While Maleficent: Mistress of Evil suffers from treading down some fairly well worn paths it does it with exceptional skill.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jan 17, 2023

Much like the original, there's very little charm and excitement to be found in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. While Jolie looks impressive in her full Maleficent costume, there is little reason to watch the film outside of that.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/10 | Aug 22, 2022

Despite a lackluster third act, Maleficent: Mistress Of Evil still works as a whole, largely thanks to Jolie and Pfeiffer’s all-in performances. It may not be much more memorable than the first entry in this franchise, but it’s still enjoyable enough.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | May 19, 2022

Even though they try to [refresh] the tale, it comes off silly.

Full Review | Sep 16, 2021

It's certainly better than the other live-action Disney rabble, but it still fails to reach the potential it has.

Full Review | Original Score: 2. 5 / 5 | Jun 25, 2021

The dialogue is hopelessly trite and generic, maladroitly trying to balance predictable exposition with comic relief - from countless different sources.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10 | Dec 7, 2020

'Disney's Maleficent: Mistress of Evil' is beautifully animated, but there are many dark moments and themes within the movie that overshadow the notion that this film is supposed to be for kids or younger audiences.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Nov 15, 2020

The Disney live-action fairy tale sequel that begs the question "Is Angelina Jolie too popularly disliked now to play anything but beautiful villainesses?"

Full Review | Nov 3, 2020

There's a lot of money on the screen, Angelina Jolie is once again really good in the film, the musical score is great, and some of the action sequences are cool. But the story this time around is even less investing than last time.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Jun 8, 2020

The sequel, however, is thankfully an improvement over the poorly-executed first movie, thanks to the more experienced director Joachim Rønning.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Apr 14, 2020

Maleficient: Mistress of Evil could certainly be worse, but that does not make it a good movie either.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Jan 29, 2020

Pfeiffer, as usual, is magnificently portraying the not so innocent and kind-hearted queen.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jan 10, 2020

These elements give the movie a nice shine, but when you bust out the polish to make your shoe look pretty, it doesn't make a difference if the sole is missing.

Full Review | Original Score: Catch It On Cable | Jan 10, 2020

Mistress of Evil is simultaneously overdone and undercooked, with a lot of the customary mistakes of giant studio entertainment.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Dec 20, 2019

Maleficent 2 is weirdly memorable with strange visual choices, great costumes, and two true movie stars giving each other the stink eye.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Dec 19, 2019

... a feast for the senses and the mind in terms of pure fantasy and imagination... buries significant character opportunities, as if the writers were tasked to combine three different scripts that defied being strung together.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4 | Dec 7, 2019

Mistress of Evil could have done anything it wanted with its unconventional villain. And yet, for some reason, Disney chose to clip her wings - keeping her story from ever taking flight.

Full Review | Dec 6, 2019

The moment they put two men on Mistress of Evil's screenplay was the moment it was doomed.

Movie review: ‘Maleficent’

(Rated PG; directed by Robert Stromberg; stars Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning; run time: 97 minutes.)

‘Sleeping Beauty’ remake casts witch as villain-hero

By Ted Giese

In “Maleficent,” the “imagineers” at Disney have worked to re-imagine “Sleeping Beauty” (1959), the cartoon based in part on two folktales: the older “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” by Charles Perrault and the newer, simpler “Brier Rose”by the Brothers Grimm.

The familiar fairy tale has become a family favorite for many. The likewise-loved Disney cartoon “Sleeping Beauty”gave the villain a name: Maleficent — a mash-up of Latin words meaning “harmful, with evil intent.” Think of the English words malefactor, maladjusted, malfeasance. Maleficent in Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty” is clearly intended to be evil, with animators giving her “devil horns.” Is this still the case in Disney’s new movie?

With this modern “live action” adaption of the folktale, the film begins by saying it will tell the viewer a story, and the viewer is to see how well he knows it. From the outset, it is plain that director Robert Stromberg is employed to retell the story in a way that recasts the characters, shifting the focus from the folktale’s general narrative onto the villain, thereby providing an origin story for the character Maleficent.

As in the Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West , where the wicked witch is made into a misunderstood hero, here Stromberg takes Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) away from pure villainy to godmotherhood.

Retaining the Perrault language of “christenings” and “godmothers” missing from the Brothers Grimm’s Brier Rose , the film “Maleficent” mixes in Christian terminology and ideas. Screenwriter Linda Woolverton, through the cinematic rehabilitation of the title character, brings in another Christian theme absent from the original fairy tales: forgiveness. Woolverton banks on the hope that, somewhere in the North American psyche, people still understand that evil needs to be overthrown by love and forgiveness, and that repentance plays a key part in this.

Overall, while the film provides moments of forgiveness between characters, it only flirts with repentance in the end. Maleficent is praised for both her villainous and heroic sides. The movie begins by saying the only thing that could bring two neighboring countries together would either be a great hero or a great villain. The movie ends saying that it wasn’t having one or the other that brought the two countries together; rather, it was having one person who embodied both these things that brought them together.

Lutheran viewers of “Maleficent” may begin to see something that starts to look like simul justus et peccator — a Latin phrase used by Luther meaning “at once a saint and a sinner.”On the one hand, Maleficent plots and carries out revenge on Aurora’s father, King Stefan (Sharlto Copley), by cursing Aurora (Elle Fanning). On the other hand, Maleficent shows love and acts as a godmother to the same girl she cursed.

There is a point in the film where Aurora stops calling Maleficent her fairy godmother and simply starts calling her godmother. This is one of the reasons that Maleficent is portrayed as both villain and hero, one who is simultaneously an evil sinner and justified. The question might then be asked, “How is she justified within the story? Is this classic justification from a biblical perspective or is it pop-American justification?”

Maleficent’s justification is not purely external in nature. It is not applied to her as the waters of baptism are applied in the Christian sacrament. Screenwriter Woolverton provides reasons and justification for Maleficent’s vengeance, but what’s missing for Christian viewers is sorrow over the character’s evil actions. Yes, there are moments of regret, and even one scene where Maleficent tries to take back her curse, but by the end of the film viewers are left with a sort of “all’s well that ends well” or an “ends justify the means” conclusion.

Maleficent is, therefore, in the narrative of the film, justified in her actions because of what was done to her — standard revenge-film stuff. Christian viewers may want to ask, “Are personal evil deeds permissible providing something evil is being avenged?” St. Paul writes, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord” (Rom. 12:19).

Where Disney’s cartoon “Sleeping Beauty” had its central focus on the unfolding drama of Princess Aurora’s misfortune and its reversal, the curse and the breaking of it take a back seat in “Maleficent.” The foreground drama owes a greater debt to English playwright William Congreve’s line, “Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,” which is regularly paraphrased as “Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned.”

In Disney’s “Sleeping Beauty,” Maleficent is scorned because she isn’t invited to the christening. This awkward situation is compounded in the new film because, as a young fairy, Maleficent had fallen in love with the future king Stefan, a young orphaned thief, who stole her heart with “true love’s kiss.” Stefan betrays this love when he drugs her and steals something else from her, cutting off her fairy wings in exchange for his personal self-advancement — the chance to become king.

Viewers quickly see that Maleficent is not the only character being reinvented in the movie. King Stefan also has undergone a dramatic change. He, like Maleficent, is dragged from the background of the folktale into the foreground. But Woolverton’s spotlight on King Stefan is not as kind as her spotlight on Maleficent. Along with almost all the other male characters, he is shown to be untrustworthy and treacherous. The male characters in this movie are either greedy or cowardly and provide no strong male role models for children.

Which leads to the last and maybe the first question concerning this film: For whom is it made? Is it a children’s movie? Woolverton wrote the screenplays for Disney’s “The Lion King” (1994) and the more recent “Alice in Wonderland” (2010). “Maleficent” is more like the latter and is a little too dark for sensitive children, with its images of cruelty that aren’t addressed well. Fairy tales as a genre do regularly deal with cruel content, yet they also balance it by providing a strong moral compass.

Relativism and revisionism don’t often provide the same sort of strong moral compass generally expected from the classical fairy tale. Does this mean folktales are off limits for creative re-imaginings? No, but it’s more challenging to be creative with a story people already know and even love than it is to be creative with new material.

In the hands of a more accomplished director, “Maleficent” could have been a very interesting film, but the whole thing gets away on Stromberg. The film’s conclusion is not as satisfying as its opening; it starts out wide awake but slowly falls asleep, and no amount of passion or love from the creative team behind “Maleficent” can provide a kiss capable of waking it back up again.

Even with some very enchanting moments, this sleeping beauty has missed the mark and likewise missed its wake-up call.

The Rev. Ted Giese is associate pastor of Mount Olive Lutheran Church, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada; a contributor to  The Canadian Lutheran  and  Reporter; and movie reviewer for the “Issues, Etc.” radio program.

Posted June 6, 2014

Contributing Writer

Great expectations newsletter - may 2014, 'reformation 500 club' supports wittenberg project.

I agree with the derisive treatment of any male in the film, it did smack of feminism to the extreme. It did however show another kind of love. Most fairy tales offer only romantic love as true love. This shows motherly love. They did play up the evil side of Maleficent, but she did have a good side as well. We humans, especially Christians, try to be good but sometimes our evil side makes an appearance. Thank you for your analogy, lots to think about, and debate.

Thanks for the review. It was insightful and helped me put a finger on that which alluded me. It is easier to see what is visible and not see what is just out of sight. Even though I didn’t like the way King Stephen acted I know power can corrupt. Yet I knew there was something but I couldn’t put my finger on it. That’s because it wasn’t there, that balance of character. King Stephen was stereotype, like the prince in Cinderella. Like so many films today they start out good but finish poorly. They start telling a wonderful story then forget the ending. They start to fly but don’t know how to land which can be injurious at best. So let me end on a happy note… ‘God’s not Dead.’

“Godly sorrow [heart-felt penitence] leads to life.” (epistle to the Romans) “Turn from your wickedness and live.” (book of Ezekiel) I don’t think I’ve seen a movie yet that deals with this essential experience of the human condition, that is the ability to respond to God’s love and goodness with a truly penitent heart. The audience is still too immature for that since penitence involves a certain depth of self-knowledge and an ability to admit one’s own failings and need to turn one’s life around. Human frailty is universal, yet all these movies today avoid that completely, turning to super heroes or characters with outrageous powers, like Maleficent to distract us from our troubled souls. The phrase that has been haunting me today is from an old hymn “…whose souls condemned and dying were precious in his sight.” I’m really off topic, but without a good father-figure, this movie will not portray true redemption, since the Gospel is essentially about what a Father will do to save his lost children. “I’m not evil, just misunderstood.” makes Maleficent sound like she is trying to rationalize or justify her evil behavior, instead of admitting that how she reacted to the person who wronged her was wrong.

I believe you’re attacking this movie due to the fact that the main character is wearing horns and that you believe she’s doing evil I can understand that. However, today way to many of the children’s games that go along with the high-tech game sets that make everything look like it’s a real person. The new games appear that you’re really shooting humans. it’s no wonder we have school shootings, shootings anywhere. It’s evil. To teach our children evil, I doubt will come from this one movie. Parents in their homes are where children learn right from wrong…good from bad. Please don’t stand on your soap boxes or pulpits and think one time in less than a two-hour movie is going to turn children evil! No. If that’s the case there hasn’t been any type of home training. Evil comes from children who are subjected to horrible things in their everyday. Gangs, child molesting, child pornography abuse of any kind that is evil. That’s where children learn, not in watching a movie. Of course, films are rated. A family that cares and loves their children will adhere to that. Thank you.

First of all, thank you for your review and insights. I did not know what to expect being dragged by my daughter and wife to see this movie. I came away very impressed with the movie. I do not expect any movie to give a perfect Lutheran theological perspective. So instead of being overly critical I applaud many of the concepts of love, forgiveness, etc. that were presented. And while many would like to SEE more regret from Maleficent I think many of her actions may be construed as “fruits of repentance”.

Frankly there seems to be for many in the evangelical camp a desire to probe and discern if “the sinner is really sorry” as if a sinner needs to pass OUR judgment in order to be saved. As a Lutheran I thank God that His forgiveness won for me at the cross also forgives my IMPERFECT repentance and empowers fruits of repentance also tend to fall short.

As with any movie talk it over with the children and youth and together glean that which is good in the movie.

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If looks could kill, Angelina Jolie’s Maleficent could lay waste to armies. Jolie, with cool wings, a red scar for lips and cheekbones that could cut concrete, sure as hell has the bearing to play a classic evil bitch in Disney’s rethinking of Sleeping Beauty . If only looks were everything. But this soulless summer timekiller is empty inside. Debuting director Robert Stromberg has two Oscars for art direction ( Avatar, Alice in Wonderland ) and it shows. The downside is that Maleficent is nothing more than a diorama disguised as a movie, a flimsy cardboard thingie that feels untouched by human hands. The idea behind the script by Linda Woolverton ( Beauty and the Beast ) is that Maleficent is really a secret softie. She’s been done wrong by a dude named Stefan (Sharlto Copley at his creepiest), who takes advantage of her innocence and later cuts off her wings so he can steal her magic land, marry the daughter of the King and wear the crown himself. Men—those rat bastards! No wonder Maleficent puts a curse on Stefan’s baby girl, Aurora. At 16, Aurora (Elle Fanning, smiling prettily and for no reason) will prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a coma. Many audience members around me looked similarly afflicted. I can relate. By the time Maleficent, aided by her shape-shifting bff Diaval (Sam Riley), is through playing fairy godmother with the help of three incompetent pixies (Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple need to fire their agents), Aurora is ready to join her spirit mom Maleficent in revenge against Big Daddy. The twink of a prince (Brenton Thwaites) is little more than an afterthought. Even the true love’s kiss that can awaken Aurora takes a feminist slant. Jolie comes to this party ready to bite, but the movie muzzles her. Even at 97 minutes, Maleficent is still one long, laborious slog.

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Maleficent Review

NOT EXACTLY ONCE UPON A DREAM

(One of my old reviews from my previous movie blog)

Over the last several years, a resurgence of fairy tales stories has caught the stardust eyes of Hollywood with studios reimaging these classic tales into feature films. 2010’s Alice in Wonderland was the first, presenting a sequel to the original Lewis Carroll classic. This was then followed by a darker tone of Snow White in 2012’s Snow White and the Huntsman , the adventurous spin on Jack and the Beanstalk in 2013’s Jack the Giant Slayer, and the magical prequel to Frank L. Baum’s tale in 2013’s Oz: the Great and Powerful . Now, in 2014, Disney continues this fairy tale revival trend with their untold story of Sleeping Beauty titled Maleficent . Does this new twist on a classic deliver a glance from viewers or is it a far cry from once upon a dream?

Set in a faraway land, the kingdom of man and its neighboring forest kingdom of fairies have struggled to coexist peacefully. The faerie Maleficent (Angelina Jolie), acting as protector to her realm and to the creatures who dwell within, soars into battle against any humans who dare to invade her land. However, after defeating King Henry (Kenneth Graham) and his royal army, Maleficent suffers a betrayal by her childhood human friend and former lover Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who’s seizes an opportunity to succeed as King when Henry dies. This betrayal turns Maleficent’s heart to stone and hell-bent on revenge. Maleficent finally confronts Stefan as his daughter’s christening celebration, placing a wicked curse upon the young princess Aurora. Fearing Maleficent’s curse, Stefan sends Aurora away, entrusting three good-willed pixels to secretly care for the young princess until the curse lapses. Unbeknownst to the trio, Maleficent watches as Aurora grows from a child into a young woman (Played by Elle Fanning) and eventually befriends kind-hearted human; forcing Maleficent to reassess her ambitions for vengeance and the ramifications of Aurora’s curse.

THE GOOD / THE BAD

As fairy tales go, Sleeping Beauty is a well-known children’s story that has seeing various adaptations throughout the years. Of course, the most famous presentation of this tale dates back to 1959 with Disney’s 16 th animated feature Sleeping Beauty . This feature, celebrating its 55 th anniversary this year, has stood the test of time and is still regaled at its iconic achievements, so it comes as no surprise that Disney decided to return the legend of Sleeping Beauty with an untold tale that’s told from eyes of the story’s main villain, Maleficent.

The hype for Disney’s Maleficent was indeed palpable and the marketing team did extensive work to promote the film, but the end result is a movie that’s not quite sure of itself with a hodgepodge of ideas and in its unbalanced theatrical tone. The movie has a sort of “Wicked” style of approach to the source material, portraying Maleficent as someone who is not “The Mistress of All Evil”, but who is simple misunderstood as her true intentions transform the infamous villain from antagonist to protagonist. It’s an admirable approach, invoking a cautionary tale of love, greed, and power, and while it speaks a profound message to modern audiences, it comes off as a little contrite and slightly manufactured. Its narrative (Again pulling from laurels of Sleeping Beauty) seems too disjointed, feeling less naturally cohesive and trying too hard to get its point across by reworking the classic tale. In addition to this, Maleficent is deeply and thematically at odds with itself with its overall tone. The movie constantly jumps from being morally lighthearted and kid friendly to deviously dark and more adult oriented. It as if the film has a case of mistaken identity, switching between the two and trying appease the younger viewers, while, at the same time,  trying to entice adults. Its missteps can be forgiven here and there, but, as a whole, Maleficent is poorly executed and an unbalance narrative and tone that seems utterly confused from the get go.

Maleficent’s saving grace is, of course, is the talented Angelina Jolie as Maleficent herself. Theatrical, the part is such a juicy role to play as Jolie produces a captivating performance, adding just the right touches of comedy, sadness, villainy, and heartfelt moments to her character. Even her striking looks with lend weight to this titular villain. Truly, Maleficent was the perfect role for Angelina Jolie to play or rather born to play, in my opinion.

However, as far as casting goes, it would seem that the filmmakers built the movie around Jolie, leaving much of the rest of the cast to the wayside and underdeveloped. This can be seeing in the character of Aurora. True, the baby and toddler forms of Aurora are impossible not to adore, but the sixteen year old Aurora, played by Elle Fanning, is flat. Fanning has proven she can act, but does get the chance to, reducing the character, who’s suppose to be the main focal point in Sleeping Beauty, to a mere catalyst; propelling events in the narrative forward. In the end, you feel more attached and taken to the character of Maleficent than you do with Aurora. Then there are the three pixels, which bestow their gifts to Aurora at birth and are later charged with raising the princess. Though, it’s conveyed that they are presented for comic relief, appealing to younger audience members, the result is something that comes across as silly to the point of being ridiculous and almost grating, acting like the female counterparts to the bumbling “The Three Stooges”. Sharlto Copley does a somewhat good job as the movie’s antagonist Stefan, proving the actor can project villainy and avarice on-screen. And finally, Sam Riley does a solid job as Maleficent’s shape-shifting minion Diaval.

In his directorial debut, Robert Stromberg, who has an illustrious visual effects career, puts a lot of emphasis on the movie’s CGI, which he does very well. It may not be at the forefront of visual effects like James Cameron’s Avatar , but the creatures designs, vast landscapes, and a heightened palpate of colors are promptly utilized to their best effect for the movie. Although the movie is a different take on Sleeping Beauty, Stromberg’s Maleficent nods back to the original tale and the Disney’s animated classic; Maleficent’s grandiose entrance and lines at Aurora’s christen celebration, the finger prick curse of Aurora, a prince, a dragon, “True Loves” kiss, and a up-to-date version of “Once Upon A Dream” performed by the talented Lana Del Rey.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Maleficent is a perplexing movie, one that gives its lead actress to shine incredibly with a role that’s strikingly memorable and iconic, but ultimately, outside of Jolie’s performance, fails to work on multiple levels. Personally, I was gleefully hyped to see this movie, but, after seeing final product, feel slightly disappointed. Perhaps the fault lies in the film’s inability to express its narrative correctly, seeking a darker tale to tell, but in such way that it adds lightheartedness at points with a de facto “Happily Ever After” tacked on at the end. With adding one-dimensional characters and ambiguous thematic tones, this modern twist to Sleeping Beauty is ultimately a missed opportunity. Maybe Disney can learn from the mistakes it took in Maleficent in preparations for their next leap into the fairy tale foray for 2015’s live-action adaptation of Cinderella .

3.0 Out of 5 (Iffy Choice / Rent It)

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• REVIEW: <i>Maleficent</i>: Sympathy for the Rebel

REVIEW: Maleficent : Sympathy for the Rebel

T his one had all the makings: a famed Disney villainess played by Hollywood’s’ most infernally glamorous star; a script by the screenwriter of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast , The Lion King and the Tim Burton Alice in Wonderland ; direction by the Oscar-winning production designer of Avatar — all in the service of reimagining a beloved fairy tale with a true-love twist. What could possibly go wrong?

Nearly everything, in Maleficent , a revisionist “origins story” of the sorceress in Disney’s 1959 animated feature Sleeping Beauty . Except for Angelina Jolie, exemplary as the fairy badmother who laid a narcotic curse on an infant princess, this pricey live-action drama is a dismaying botch. Robert Stromberg, the expert draftsman in his debut as director, has no mastery of casting and guiding actors, little sense of narrative pace or build and — the big, sad surprise — a leaden sense of visualizing Maleficent’s fairyland. Full of spells and transformations, the movie couldn’t be less magical.

Borrowing from the novel and Broadway musical Wicked , which gave a redemptive backstory to The Wizard of Oz’ s Witch of the West, scriptwriter Linda Woolverton argues that the young Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy as a child, Ella Purnell as a teen) was a sweet, grave girl — an elfin aristocrat who, in other circumstances, might have grown up to be a wise queen like Galadriel in The Lord of the Rings . But instead of Aragorn she met the human Stefan (Michael Higgins as a boy, Jackson Bews as a teen and Sharlto Copley as an adult). This dashing lad won Maleficent’s love and, ambition overwhelming ardor, clipped and stole her wings to become the king of a neighboring realm. Bastard!

To revenge herself on the man who unleashed her Wicked side, Maleficent barges into the christening of King Stefan’s daughter Aurora and proclaims her famous curse: that on the girl’s 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a sewing-wheel needle and fall into a coma, breakable only by “true love’s kiss.” The King sends the infant into the Witness Protection program of three nattering fairies (Isabelle Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple) whose cottage is monitored by Maleficent’s shape-shifting servant Diaval (Sam Riley).

(SEE: 13 Disney Princesses and the Actresses Who Voiced Them )

At first Maleficent thinks the baby is “so ugly you could almost feel sorry for it.” But over the years in the forest, Aurora grows into a lovely teen (Elle Fanning) who calls Maleficent her fairy godmother. She just might steal — as the woman who cursed her says — “what was left of my heart.” Cared for by three fairies who are, at best, dotty aunts, a girl alone needs a mother figure, and finds it in Maleficent. (Aurora at five is played by the star’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.) The warmth she can provide is chilled by the knowledge that she is the one who, long ago, doomed her one loving alliance.

Producer Joe Roth — who also shepherded the live-action versions of Alice in Wonderland and Oz the Great and Powerful through Disney, and Snow White and the Huntsman at Universal — rightly recognized Jolie’s kinship to Maleficent, declaring that “There was no point in making the movie if it wasn’t her.” He was alluding to the star’s dominant, regal otherness.

(READ: Corliss on Angelina Jolie in Wanted )

She almost might have been designed in some special-effects shop to play Maleficent. And Rick Baker’s makeup artistry does her and the character proud, with curling, leathery horns and dark diagonal slashes on her cheekbones that sculpt her face into diamond-shaped severity. To the wolf eyes and Morticia Addams pallor, Jolie brings an imperious vocal styling with echoes of Bette Davis. (Eleanor Audley voiced Maleficent in the animated feature.) She is the visual, aural and behavioral embodiment of an otherworldly goddess capable of anything, from poisonous curses to surrogate-mother love.

(READ: The sorry state of mothers in Disney animated features )

Other than Jolie’s grandeur, and a bit of Fanning’s freshness, the movie’s got nothing. It takes its design cue from sword-and-sorcery films in their sepulchral early-’80s phase ( The Dark Crystal , Legend ) but fails at its evocation of enveloping murk. When it tries for lightness of image, with the appearances of fairyland sprites, the creatures are wan, unbeguiling and poorly integrated into the surrounding flora. Lightness of touch is also missing; Maleficent didn’t have to go the parody route of The Princess Bride (which also had a full measure of enchantment), but a little knowing levity would have given the characters life outside of their stereotypes.

Roth and Disney knew their project had problems; they enlisted John Lee Hancock, director of The Blind Side and Saving Mr. Banks , to rework the early scenes and add a ton of narration (voiced by Janet McTeer). Apparently no one could fix the clumsy comedy of the fairy trio, or the minimal impact on Aurora of two royal deaths, and least of all the unfortunate casting of Copley. The South African actor, so comically poignant as the lead in Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 (his first feature role), lacks the traditional skills needed for a fairy-tale hero turned villain. Nor did anyone attend to anomalies in Maleficent’s powers. She can change Diaval into any creature, from crow to dragon, except when, toward the end, she can’t. Her imposing wings get sawed off, until they get magically and capriciously reattached.

(READ: Corliss’s review of Neil Blomkamp’s District 9 )

The Disney people ought to know how to tell this story — of a female with frightening powers, finally battling to save the princess who suffers from her curse — because they just did it. Anyone remember Frozen ? That animated wonder had the forces of good and evil at war in the same character, plus a love story, smart laughs and a hit song that ran through everyone’s internal iPod for months.

(READ: Why Frozen Was Totally Thaw-some )

Maleficent ends with Lana Del Ray singing the original film’s “Once Upon a Dream” (based on Tchaikovsky’s Sleeping Beauty waltz) in a droning tone that suits this production. It’s a requiem, a dirge, for a lifeless movie.

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‘Maleficent’ (2014) Movie Review

By Brad Brevet

It’s one thing to be a bad movie and it’s quite another to be boring and heaven help the film that is both. For its target audience, which I assume to be young girls no older than ten or so, Maleficent may be an enchanting feature filled with fairies and a strong female anti-hero turned heroine. For everyone else, I say beware, this is a tiresome slog that had me checking my watch 30 minutes in and every ten minutes after as it felt it would never end. Every turn in the story is narrated by Janet McTeer as if reading from an outline of the film’s script, which is so spectacularly weak it features entire scenes so riveting some end with people sitting in chairs while the focus of others is to watch as a character laughs maniacally to themselves… while sitting in a chair.

In adapting the fairy tale most of us remember as Disney’s classic 1959 animated feature Sleeping Beauty , screenwriter Linda Woolverton ( Alice in Wonderland ) has taken a welcomed approach to the story. Gone is the idea of a male character that must come to save our damsel in distress. Instead this is a story of female empowerment and love that isn’t decided based on the guy that comes along and simply finds the sleeping beauty the most gorgeous “thing” he’s seen. It’s a respectable choice and about time Disney took that approach, it’s just too bad it had to be in the form of such a dull feature.

It’s no wonder director Robert Stromberg , making his feature directorial debut, has an extension background in visual effects because that’s all this film is concerned about. Opening the story within the fantastical moors in which Maleficent is seen at an early age, living her life as a fairy, flying around in her magical, mystical realm with all her other fantasy friends until one day a boy, Stefan, from the realm of humankind stumbles into their land. The two become friends and over the years become very close, but as they age, the desire for power corrupts Stefan’s heart.

Soon the king decides, for whatever reason, he wants to kill all the magical creatures and proclaims the person that kills Maleficent will serve as his successor. Using his relationship with Maleficent ( Angelina Jolie ), Stefan ( Sharlto Copley ) gets close to her and clips her wings, thus beginning a cycle of hate that culminates in Maleficent cursing Stefan’s first born daughter Aurora ( Elle Fanning ) to a deep sleep on her 16th birthday, a curse that can only be broken by true love’s kiss, something both Maleficent and Stefan believe doesn’t actually exist. Sorry queen.

The story then bounces through the next 16 years of Aurora’s life with the three fairies ( Imelda Staunton , Juno Temple and Lesley Manville ) caring for her in the forest while Maleficent and her crow-turned-man-servant ( Sam Riley ) keep watch. Meanwhile, Stefan goes crazy in the castle trying to kill his friend-turned-foe, etc. etc. etc.

For a film that runs 96 minutes it feels like three hours and for a film this driven by visual effects it’s astonishing just how many scenes it includes where people just sit around and turn into talking heads only to advance the plot. You can sense when Stromberg and Woolverton were attempting to capture both the magic and the humor of the original Disney film, particularly with the bumbling fairies caring for Aurora, most notably the cake baking scene , which is simplified down into merely the presentation of a lopsided baked good rather than a moment to actually get to know Aurora’s caretakers.

This gets to the heart of Maleficent ‘s issues, it’s a film consisting of bullet points rather than scenes. The cake baking scene is a perfect example of a moment where the scene showing the fairies making the cake is excised only to show the finished product. I understand the movie is titled Maleficent, but if all we’re going to do is watch her sit and stew in her own anger what’s the point?

Jolie does just fine in the title role while Fanning is given nothing to do but wander around clueless while getting in mud fights with fairyland creatures. The worst of the lot is Copley who seems to struggle from one accent to the next, but I guess I can’t lay too much of the blame at his feet as he too was given nothing to do. In fact, outside of Jolie, everyone else is just stumbling around like robots and the only great scene Jolie is given is the iconic entrance of Maleficent on the day she curses Aurora. After that it’s either scenes of her reveling in the misery she’s created or agonizing over the misery she’s created. Too bad they don’t have psychiatrists for mystical creatures, though I’m sure her agony isn’t something a wall of thorns and the cursing of a newborn child can’t fix.

Perhaps some will think I’m being overly precious when it comes to the classic animated story, but I fail to believe any youngster that watches Maleficent will hold it in high regard when they grow older the same way audiences adore Disney’s classic animated movies. Yes, movies such as this might be made for a young audience that will find something to enjoy in the magical CG flittering around, but once that audience grows up will they honestly turn to something like this for warm childhood memories? Dear God I hope not.

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Anya Taylor Joy wants to play Elsa in a live-action Frozen for the sweetest reason

Is this our new Elsa?

Furiosa star Anya Taylor-Joy may be ditching fire and action for the Disney fairytale as she reveals she wants to play Ice Queen Elsa in a possible live-action Frozen movie for the sweetest reason.

"I think Frozen would be pretty great," said Taylor Joy in an interview with Vogue Hong Kong , when asked about her dream Disney role. "It would be very fun to shoot ice out of your hand. Also, you’d just be the favorite at every kid’s birthday party."

But, aside from the cool icy powers, the star had the most wholesome reason for choosing that role. "All of my siblings have children now, so I would love for them to be able to say ‘my auntie is Elsa,'" added The Queen’s Gambit actor. "That would be pretty sick."

However, the star actually already threw her hat in the Disney ring back in 2014 for the Sleeping Beauty spin-off Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie as the sorceress. Taylor-Joy auditioned for the role of young Maleficent, but the part went to Fallout’s Ella Purnell instead. 

It looks like this hasn't deterred her from another Disney movie, or even a musical for that matter, as she added, "I would love to do a musical because I’m a bit addicted to hard work. The idea of having to be able to sing, dance, and act at the same time would just really thrill me."

Although a Frozen live-action remake is yet to be announced, there is a chance it could happen as the studio has brought many of its original Disney princess tales to love such as Cinderella , Beauty and the Beast, and last year’s The Little Mermaid . The next live-action flick to hit screens is Snow White starring The Hunger Games’ Rachel Zegler as the fairest of them all, which releases in March 2025.

Next up for Taylor-Joy, the star is heading back to Netflix four years after the success of The Queens Gambit to lead the dark comedy series How to Kill Your Family. Based on the best-selling novel saga by Bella Mackie, the eight-part series will follow Taylor-Joy as disgruntled lovechild Grace as she plots revenge against her runaway rich dad and his family. 

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I am an Entertainment Writer here at GamesRadar+, covering TV and film for SFX and Total Film online. I have a Bachelors Degree in Media Production and Journalism and a Masters in Fashion Journalism from UAL. In the past I have written for local UK and US newspaper outlets such as the Portland Tribune and York Mix and worked in communications, before focusing on film and entertainment writing. I am a HUGE horror fan and in 2022 I created my very own single issue feminist horror magazine.  

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