Maleficent (film)

LOG · Nov 14, 2013

Due May 2014.

Allow me to give you the synopsis from the Disney home page:

From Disney comes “Maleficent”—the untold story of Disney’s most iconic villain from the 1959 classic “Sleeping Beauty.” A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal—an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom—and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well.

This is our mistress of all evil.
She cares about peace and redemption apparently.

The writers of the screenplay were Paul Dini and Linda Woolverton. I don't think they're bad but . . . I don't know.
The Wicked treatment isn't something I'm terribly fond of. Not because I mind further development of the character, but because it seems to have a habit of turning them into sob stories.
Why can't my villains ever just stay evil?

DeleyanLee · Nov 15, 2013

They can stay evil. Ignore anything new about them. It works well for me.

Witch_turtle · Nov 15, 2013

Wait...that's the plot? I saw the trailer and thought Angelina Jolie was positively chilling, which made me sort of excited. Now I'm not so sure.

Undercover · Nov 15, 2013

Is there a trailer on it? i guess i could google it. i saw jolie too which caught my eye right away.

Alessandra Kelley · Nov 15, 2013

I saw the trailer. It seemed ... a live-action Sleeping Beauty.

I don't see how they can make Maleficient into some kind of hero. We know how her story comes out, and it ain't good.

Celia Cyanide · Nov 15, 2013

I love that character. I had a headpiece like hers I used to wear to the club when I was a teenager. And I had a Maleficent t-shirt.

I loath Angelina Jolie. Too bad...

Cyia · Nov 15, 2013

I don't think they're trying to make her a hero, more it's the story of how someone who *could* have been a hero went wrong with the best of intentions.

I know I read somewhere that Maleficent's backstory was supposed to entail a lost love murdered with a spinning spindle by a mother intent on her marrying royalty (sort of the backstory that Once Upon a Time worked in for Cora and Regina), but I'm not sure if they dropped it in favor of something else and left that story for TV.

LOG · Nov 16, 2013

Undercover said:
Is there a trailer on it? i guess i could google it. i saw jolie too which caught my eye right away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=704EXbJ-b5k

infractuspennae · Nov 16, 2013

The fact AJ is in it turns me off. I am not a fan of hers. However, the movie itself would interest me. I like movies based on fairy tales.

London89 · Nov 18, 2013

After seeing the trailer I'm excited to see Angelina Jolie in this, looks good... :popcorn:

Rhoda Nightingale · Nov 20, 2013

Good luck trying to out-awesome Charlize Theron in Snow White and the Huntsman. That's about where I'm at right now.

Cyia · May 30, 2014

Just saw it.

Visually stunning, though mostly CGI, and Angelina Jolie was certainly given enough scenery to chew. The story was nice, but nothing really spectacular. The costumes were gorgeous.

I did not like Aurora's three Aunties (maybe it's because the main one was "Dolores Umbridge") at all. They honestly reminded me of the three witches from Hocus Pocus, and they were about as adept. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, they were not. (I wish they'd done a live action version of the "birthday cake" scene from the cartoon. It would have been a nice nod, and given the fairies some personality.)

The retelling aspect was interesting, though I'm getting a bit tired of the "woman scorned" plot. (Though I have to admit she had a really good reason for said scorn in this instance.) They really could have done more with Stefan than turn him into a one-note Looney Tune.

Elle Fanning could have handled much more than they gave her to do, but what she had, she shined in. And I'm still disappointed that Diavlo didn't turn out to be Prince Phillip; it would have finally given a real reason for the prince to be attached to Aurora beyond her looks or voice, but I did like the twist they put on True Love's Kiss. (The poor prince was something of a piece of cardboard, actually.)

A solid movie, if not quite as awesome as I expected.

meg_b · Jun 1, 2014

I saw this on Saturday and I quite liked it. It's not as dark as I expected it to be and it wasn't on the edge of your seat exciting, but it was certainly entertaining. I can't say I know much about the Sleeping Beauty fairytale because I never watched the movie from Disney, so while I can't comment on the characterisation of the characters, I will comment that I enjoyed Angelina Jolie's Maleficent. I'm not much a fan of hers to begin with, but I enjoyed the way she played this part hero, part villain.

Diaval was probably my favourite character in the movie and I actually expected some romance there between Diaval and Maleficent, alas it did not come much to my own disappointment. However, overall it was a very interesting and entertaining movie.

Cyia said:
Elle Fanning could have handled much more than they gave her to do, but what she had, she shined in.

I completely agree with this.

J.S.F. · Jun 3, 2014

Revisionist take or no, it was well done. Fanning was fine in the limited time she was around, the other actors/actresses did well enough, the special effects were all in place...

...and Angelina Jolie IS Maleficent. I don't care about the rep she has of being a difficult actress to work with or her poofy lips or that she's adopted half the world. I don't care if she's stuck up or this or that. She OWNS this flick and for that alone she deserves (but won't win) the Oscar for Best Fucking Actress on the planet.

Without her this flick would have bit the big one. With her, I'd give it 3.5 out of five stars, mainly because of a wandering script. Whenever Angelina's onscreen, it goes up to a five. JMO...

suha52 · Jun 11, 2014

Just watched it today, the movie is really good.

mellymel · Jun 18, 2014

I finally saw this with my husband and girls and we all enjoyed it IMMENSELY. I loved the twist of giving us the story of the how and why Aurora was put to sleep. I found myself rooting for Maleficent, then kind of hating her, and then seeing her change and rooting for her again. The scenery and effects were beautiful. Angelina was MADE for that role. I only snorted/cringed a bit when Aurora and the prince touched and had a "moment" after just meeting. But when Malificent turned out to be her true love I was relieved and extremely satisfied. It reminded me of Frozen when Elsa turns out to be Anna's true love.

All in all, VERY entertaining. I thought the story was good and it had a lot of emotion behind it. But Angelina STOLE the whole movie for me. I could watch her and those full-ass lips All. Day.

noranne · Jun 18, 2014

meg_b said:
Diaval was probably my favourite character in the movie and I actually expected some romance there between Diaval and Maleficent, alas it did not come much to my own disappointment. However, overall it was a very interesting and entertaining movie.

In my head there is! They can't take that away from me.

Menyanthana · Jun 20, 2014

Cyia said:
And I'm still disappointed that Diavlo didn't turn out to be Prince Phillip; it would have finally given a real reason for the prince to be attached to Aurora beyond her looks or voice,

Yeah, but ... it would have been a bit ... questionable, wouldn't it? His having known her from when she was a baby and stuff?

But rest assured, in spite of this, there still is fanfic about the two.

B1Z4RRE · Jun 25, 2014

Cyia said:
Just saw it.

Visually stunning, though mostly CGI, and Angelina Jolie was certainly given enough scenery to chew. The story was nice, but nothing really spectacular. The costumes were gorgeous.

I did not like Aurora's three Aunties (maybe it's because the main one was "Dolores Umbridge") at all. They honestly reminded me of the three witches from Hocus Pocus, and they were about as adept. Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, they were not. (I wish they'd done a live action version of the "birthday cake" scene from the cartoon. It would have been a nice nod, and given the fairies some personality.)

The retelling aspect was interesting, though I'm getting a bit tired of the "woman scorned" plot. (Though I have to admit she had a really good reason for said scorn in this instance.) They really could have done more with Stefan than turn him into a one-note Looney Tune.

Elle Fanning could have handled much more than they gave her to do, but what she had, she shined in. And I'm still disappointed that Diavlo didn't turn out to be Prince Phillip; it would have finally given a real reason for the prince to be attached to Aurora beyond her looks or voice, but I did like the twist they put on True Love's Kiss. (The poor prince was something of a piece of cardboard, actually.)

A solid movie, if not quite as awesome as I expected.

Honestly, I felt the same way about Aurora's three aunts-- they were just so ...irritating. I can't honestly think of a better word do describe it.
But as you mentioned, visually I thought it was amazing-- and I honestly enjoyed AJ's portrayal of Maleficent.

But god-- those aunt's -_-

veinglory · Jun 25, 2014

I enjoyed it but

[spoilers]

[spoilers]

[spoilers]

Having Aurora sleep for like a few minutes seemed a bit of a cop out rather than coming up with a rewriting that both fitted and subverted the myth.

Also, parts of it were Frozen with horns. Guess "we don't need no prince" is going to be a movie meme this year

That said, a very pretty film.

lilyWhite · Jun 26, 2014

I saw it last Sunday, and...didn't care for it at all. There's two main reasons for it (spoilers hidden):

1. The blatant and utter derailment of Stefan and the three fairies, simply to serve as Maleficent's motivation for becoming evil and becoming sympathetic to Aurora respectively.

2. The movie gives Maleficent deeper motivation for what she does, but on top of just being incredibly cliched ("woman scorned by a man"), it completely fails to make me sympathetic towards Maleficent because of how she cursed someone who has done nothing to her because of what Stefan did to her. That whole aspect makes Maleficent's eventual sympathy to Aurora to the point where her motherly love is "true love's kiss" feel forced and dumb, especially when no one holds Maleficent responsible for having cursed Aurora, not even Aurora herself. Even with their attempts to make her sympathetic, I couldn't find myself rooting for her in the slightest.

I feel like the story would have worked better for me had they not forced it into a "retelling" of Sleeping Beauty. Or better yet, if Stefan wasn't made into a shallow and uninteresting evil villain to be conquered in the end. Given how the movie tries to give moral depth to the titular classic villain, it's very glaring how Maleficent's villain is ultimately just as shallow as Maleficent originally was.

gingerwoman · Jun 26, 2014

Having listened to the long playing record (yes I'm that old) and looked at the picture book of the movie endless times as a child the characterization of the three fairies as annoying idiots and the epitome of all evil as the good guy was pretty weird, but it really was a wonderful treat of a film and delightfully, surprisingly feminist. And no I don't mean anything to do with the king being a bad guy etc I mean

spoiler

spoiler

spoiler

Female friendship being unashamedly at the forefront of a movie is still fairly transgressive in the history of western film.

Menyanthana · Jun 30, 2014

lilyWhite said:
I saw it last Sunday, and...didn't care for it at all. There's two main reasons for it (spoilers hidden):

1. The blatant and utter derailment of Stefan and the three fairies, simply to serve as Maleficent's motivation for becoming evil and becoming sympathetic to Aurora respectively.

2. The movie gives Maleficent deeper motivation for what she does, but on top of just being incredibly cliched ("woman scorned by a man"), it completely fails to make me sympathetic towards Maleficent because of how she cursed someone who has done nothing to her because of what Stefan did to her. That whole aspect makes Maleficent's eventual sympathy to Aurora to the point where her motherly love is "true love's kiss" feel forced and dumb, especially when no one holds Maleficent responsible for having cursed Aurora, not even Aurora herself. Even with their attempts to make her sympathetic, I couldn't find myself rooting for her in the slightest.

I feel like the story would have worked better for me had they not forced it into a "retelling" of Sleeping Beauty. Or better yet, if Stefan wasn't made into a shallow and uninteresting evil villain to be conquered in the end. Given how the movie tries to give moral depth to the titular classic villain, it's very glaring how Maleficent's villain is ultimately just as shallow as Maleficent originally was.

In my opinion, the fact that what Maleficent did was so useless was what made the movie so good. Because this is how violence works. In real life, people often don't take revenge on those who wronged them, they take revenge on innocent people who happen to be easy targets.

We're just not used to seeing that in movies.

Ken · Jun 30, 2014

Angelina!

SimplyWrite · Jul 6, 2014

Yeah, I liked it. Of course, I've seen so many BAD movies with my girls, my expectations are always low. Frozen it is not, but it's a whole lot better than most of the other crap Disney puts out nowadays. And I like Angelina Jolie as an actress. So, I liked her in this too.

Maleficent (film)

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