Reviews

Written: June 30^th, 2014

  I've been reading a lot of articles about Maleficent. Primarily because family and friends are reading them and telling me about how they may or may not see the movie because of those articles.

  Frankly I don't let anyone tell me what is a good movie and what isn't. Sure, some of my family and friends will let me know their thoughts, but nothing they say really will change my mind about whether or not to go see the movie.

  Maleficent, in fact, has gone through a lot of abuse in the media and therefore has affected some of my family and friends. Now some of them don't want to see the movie because of those articles they've read.

  Here's what I don't understand. Those writers have been wrong before. They were wrong about Noah and they were wrong about Frozen.

  Yes, FROZEN! The movie that brought tears to your eyes, a smile to your lips, and a song to be permanently etched in your memory!

  Now they are abusing Maleficent. And, again, they are wrong.

  According to some reviews Maleficent, is representative of Satan. It's said that this movie teaches children, and adults alike, that Satan/Evil is just misunderstood and is basically good, if we look into why they are evil.

  That's crap.

  Here's what those supposed critics seemed to have missed.

  Maleficent started off as someone who loved everyone and was curious. She didn't become embittered toward Man until the person who claimed to be her True Love CUT HER WINGS OFF!!! Never apologized or explained!

  She had to find out the WHY of it all later on from someone else! By then the dude was already king and married to the old kings daughter.

  But let's go back for a bit. Why did Stefan take the wings? He did it because the King had become jealous/greedy and wanted to conquer/destroy the faire folk and take their land. So he attacked the border.

  Mal and a few guardians warned them to turn back. WARNED THEM. Didn't threaten, just told them the answer was "No." Of course the King wasn't going to take that and attacked anyway. So Mal called on some Guardians and together they turned back the entire army!

  Now, because of the rating of the movie, or because it never happened, but not once did I actually see Mal kill anyone. Sure she broke a few bones and tossed a few around like rag-dolls, but even now she was only trying to get them to stop and back-off.

  It worked and the entire army turned tail and headed for home, with the King vowing revenge.

  Eventually he was bed ridden from some sickness. And here is where things turn a little dark.

  The king says that his successor, the future king, will be whomever can kill Maleficent.

  Ooops! There goes the light bulb above Stefans head! He's got a plan.

  So that night he sneaks out and heads to the border which is now guarded by that giant briar patch.

  At this point I ask you to take notice that the briar patch is NOT around the castle and is NOT being used to keep people rescuing anyone. It's being used to protect the fairyland and to keep the army...and Man...from getting in.

  In any case, Stefan gets Mal to let him in. They spend the whole night talking. And then, while she's asleep, he cuts her wings off because he can't bring himself to kill her.

  He takes the wings back to the king and lays them at the kings feet like a pet dog and he becomes the successor to the throne.

  Now, Mal, angry and bitter, turns her powers more towards the dark side and decides to rule the fairyland as Queen.

  When the new King Stefan and his wife have a baby, Mal invites herself to the celebration and "blesses" the child with a curse that is different than the one we know from the animated movie.

  But then again I've already talked about that in my SPOILER-free review.

  Moving on Mal watches as the three worst fairies when it comes to responsibility take the baby away. Mal even helps out when the baby is hungry and has her Crow-Boy go and feed the child.

  Throughout the life of the baby, Mal watches over her. At first she attempts little things to try and scare the child or to kill the little Beastie (as she calls it), but then saves the child from doom.

  Let's stop right there for a moment.

  In thinking of the Satan/Maleficent parallel all those critics talk about I would like to ask: At what point in time did Satan lead us to doom...and then save us? According to my research, that answer is: NONE! At least in the Bible, not once has anyone been saved by Satan! Secondly, if Satan was going to curse a child he wouldn't put a sleep spell on them! He'd put the death penalty on them!

  Let's also back-track a bit again. Mal never wanted to rule fairyland. No one did. They all trusted each other and things were grand! Satan, on the other yearned for power and dominance!

  Already we are seeing vast differences between these two characters!

  How did the critics miss this?!

  Moving on once more, Mal finally tries to recall the curse because she has grown to love the child as if it were her very own! But it doesn't work. So instead she begins the search for something that will break the death-like sleep Aurora is destined for.

  She even races into the castle knowing that King Stefan is planning on her coming and has devised traps and snares and all kinds of terrible things. Mal braves all of that in order to save the girl she had placed in peril.

  Sound like Satan? Nope, didn't think so.

  Mal does indeed save Aurora, I'll let you find out how, and is so overcome with emotion that she actually cries. And then knowingly walks into a large trap.

  Does she turn into a dragon? Not once! She turns her Crow-Boy into a feathery dragon! He does all the damage!

  Meanwhile Aurora has found the locked up wings from years ago and releases them! They immediately fly to Maleficent where they re-merge with her and she becomes whole once more!

  Does she then fly about killing all of her attackers? Nope. She flies to find an escape.

  But the king won't let it go! He's been dreaming, plotting, and, in his paranoia, chains her feet and trails behind her as she flies out of a window. She banks and swerves and manages to drop him onto the battlements, but just when she has him in her grasp and is about to kill him for all he has done, she let's go. In that moment you can see she dismisses him.

  I'm not saying she forgave him, but I am saying that she no longer hates him. She has all she needs. Her wings, the Crow-Boy, and Aurora.

  But Stefan is too far gone. He lunges for her and falls...to his death.

  Again I would like to point out that NOT ONCE does it show Maleficent kill anyone! Not even the King, whom she could have killed and it would have been self-defense!

  Does any of this sound like a demon? Satan? Someone who is truly evil?

  Yeah, I didn't think so.

  In the end, the briar patch comes down. Aurora becomes queen of Man's Realm and the Fairyland.

  Maleficent was never misunderstood. Not even by Stefan. He knew who she was and what she was capable of. That's why he feared her. He knew what she could do and that she had ample reason to seek revenge on him. But since her revenge was to curse a baby and then fight to stop it, she was too busy to truly worry about him. But his paranoia only grew with each day she never came to attack.

  Really this movie seeks to ask a different question than what those dumb critics say. It's not a movie asking if evil is truly evil or is it just misunderstood.

  No, it actually is asking, what is more evil, that which spoils innocence for gain, or that which guards, protects, and defends something to the point of excluding others?

  That's what really happened. Mal sought vengeance and while it was building came to regret it, sought to protect that which was cursed, and while doing so, also strove to protect her land and her people.

  All in all I think people who decide to forgo this movie purely because those "critics" have blasted it, slandered it, and denounced it, they all need to know just one thing...

  They have seriously misunderstood the movie.

  Be your own judge. Stop letting others tell you what to see or not see.