Reviews



Theatrical Release Poster

Maleficent

Release Date: May 30, 2014

Directed By: Robert Stromberg

Written: June 14th, 2014

  Hopefully by now many of you have already seen this. If you have I welcome your thoughts on it.

  As for me, I loved it.

  First off, Angelina Jolie is one of the most beautiful and talented actresses in the world, in my own opinion. Her way of speech, her walk, even the way she tilts her head in this movie was exactly right for the part. Near the beginning her smile brought a glow to her character and made you happy for her.

  When her wings were taken from her I almost wanted to cry because of her pain and her sadness. The look on her face was not just of horror for what was done to her, but also of rejection and shock because the person who did it to her was someone she thought loved her.

  At that moment I was able to imagine what it must be like to have someone you love rip something away from you, something that nearly defined you, and they seemed to have done it for no reason.

  This movie twists the tale we all grew up with in the animated version by having the man who took her wings to be Stefen, a man who did it to become king. So...he did it to climb the corporate ladder.

  You know that old saying that says: "Be careful who you step on to climb to the top, for they will be the ones supporting you from below."

  Well, Stefen stomped all over Maleficent, which was a huge mistake, for several reasons. One: She knows magic, dude. That alone should have warned you to keep away. Two: She will probably outlive you. And Three: Did I mention she knows magic and can control the other creatures if she wants?!

  Later in the movie we see that he has "framed" her wings in a trophy box. That's just messed up.

  Now comes the part of the movie many know. King Stefen marries the former kings daughter and they have a baby girl named Aurora. At the celebration Mal (she lets me call her Mal) arrives and in a delightfully evil way, bestows her own "blessing" on the child. She even goes so far as to say that the curse will hold until the end of time and no power on Earth can remove it. Bad choice of words, as you will see later.

  Here is where they part, once again, from the tale we all know. In this curse of hers, instead of Aurora pricking her finger on a spinning wheel and dying, she will instead prick her finger and fall into a death-like sleep. One that only True-Love's Kiss can wake her from it. Granted this is what the curse becomes in the original, but in the original Maleficent wanted Aurora to die, but one of the good fairies changed it to being in a deep sleep that only true love can wake. Here, they ignored the third fairies blessing and it was Maleficent who mentioned death-like sleep and true love.

  Why did they change that part? I don't know. As it was, there was still one good fairy left to bestow a blessing on the child so they still could have kept the original storyline. I'm guessing they did it this way because earlier in the movie Stefen, when he and Mal were younger, kissed Mal and told her it was true-loves kiss. So this curse seems to be another jab at Stefen.

  Right after Mal leaves King Stefen does something (both in this movie and the original animated one) that still baffles me some. The curse quite plainly says that Aurora will grow in beauty and and all that until her 16th birthday. This tells me that Aurora is safe from Mal until then.

  So...why did the King send his daughter away? She's supposed to be safe for 16 years. The most important part in a child's development and he sends her away? Even more baffling is that a king who distrusts fairy-folk sends his daughter off with not one, but three of them. Three who have already shown to not be level-headed or even bright by anyone's standards.

  So off they go where they find a run-down cottage in the woods and promptly leave the baby outside and alone.

  Even Mal, at one point, realizes that the baby (or Beastie as she calls it) will die if left to the efforts of the three fairies. So Mal and her raven-man, step in and help feed, rock, and play with Aurora.

  To make this review shorter I'll skip a lot of the in-between stuff.

  Eventually Mal grows to love the child and tries to recall her curse. It doesn't work. Why? Because she set the limits of the curse herself. She chose the wrong words out of anger. For the rest of the movie, Mal sets out to try and stop the curse...or somehow break it or delay it. She tries to tell Aurora about it and is stopped. She even brings Prince Phillip to the castle to kiss Aurora in order to break the spell...and it doesn't work.

  GAME CHANGING SPOILER ABOUT TO COMMENCE!! BE WARNED!!

  Maleficent, while staring down at Aurora in a death-sleep, then tells Aurora how sorry she was and how sad she is and how much she loves Aurora and will do all in her power to keep Aurora safe for the rest of her life. She then bends over and kisses Aurora on the forehead. As she turns to go, Aurora wakes from her sleep!

  Why?

  Because Disney got it right...again. True Love doesn't just come from a Man-Woman relationship. It comes from mothers and aunts and fathers and brothers and sisters and best friends. True Love's kiss doesn't have to mean they are going to get married and it doesn't have to be a sexual thing either. It could literally mean that one person TRULY LOVES another person. No strings attached and no hidden agenda. Exactly as it should be.

  However, getting his daughter back alive and having it be Mal, whom he had wronged and fostered paranoid delusions over for so long, didn't stop King Stefen from trying to kill Maleficent. And it almost worked too. But he didn't count on the fact that Aurora loved her "Fairy Godmother" Mal as much as Mal loved her. Aurora somehow found her way into the room in which Mal's wings had been kept all these years. And when Mal was in distress the wings began to flutter and try to flap and escape their prison. Aurora broke open the cage and set the wings free...thus allowing them to fly to Mal's aide and reattach themselves. Now, whole once more, Mal defeats her would-be captors by escaping, but not completely. Still driven by hate, Stefen had used an iron chain to grab hold of Mal's leg and as she took flight he went with her. Up on the battlements he tried once more to kill her, but she was able to subdue him...for a moment. After having him in her grasp she decides to leave him alive. She begins to walk away, but he won't allow it and tackles her off the edge. But she can fly now. And he can't. His desire for her death ends with only his own.

  In the aftermath, Aurora becomes the queen of the human kingdom...and in a special ceremony, also becomes queen of the fairyland. Uniting the two kingdoms in peace, for the first time in known history. Maleficent is happy once more, the kingdoms are at peace, and all is as it should be.

  The end?

  A really, REALLY well done re-telling of a classic story. I was extremely impressed in how they brought in elements from the animated version into this one.

  But it also has sparked much controversy among the people. Particularly among the supposed-Christian community. Which makes me really sad. Because I'm a Christian and I didn't have a problem with the movie at all. I would love to dive more into this, but that's another subject for another blog.

  Suffice it to say, that this movie clearly shows that when someone takes away from you that which you hold most dear. Something that defines you, you have two options. You can learn and grow to become the best you can be without that something...or you can become bitter and angry and seek revenge that no one really wins at.

  But the movie was a fantastic work of art. The effects were precise and detailed, the acting was superb all around, and the story was different enough from the original that it left you wondering how it was all going to work out.

  Is it a must see? Absolutely.

  Is it controversial? Only to those who don't know how to think things through. But again, you will have to wait for a future blog of mine before we dive into that.

  Go see the movie. Make your own conclusions. And while you are at it, enjoy being a kid again and relive the moment when you first watched the original animated version. Trust me, you'll have a good time!