Maleficent (2014)

Film Title: Maleficent
Released: May 28, 2014
Directed by: Robert Stromberg
Written by: Linda Woolverton (screenplay), based on the story La Belle au bois dormant by Charles Perrault, based on the motion picture Sleeping Beauty adapted by Erdman Penner with screenplay by Joe Rinaldi, Winston Hibler, Bill Peet, Ted Sears, Ralph Wright & Milt Banta, based on the story Little Briar Rose by Jacob Grimm & Wilhelm Grimm
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning & Sharlto Copley

Plot: A betrayed fairy curses an infant princess but then realizes that the girl may the land's only hope of survival.

IMDb: 7.0/10
Rotten Tomatoes: 49/100
My Score: 4.5/5

WARNING: SPOILERS AHEAD

I would like to start this review with a disclaimer. I am not one of those seemingly endless scores of people who find Angelina Jolie drop-dead gorgeous. In fact, I don’t even usually find her to be all that great of an actress. I went into this movie thinking that I would very much dislike the film. As you can tell from the score above, that was not the case at all; quite the opposite, in fact. It is less a re-telling of Sleeping Beauty as it is a re-imagining. Maleficent (Jolie) is a fairy who is betrayed by Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who cuts off her wings. For his feat, he is named heir to the dying king and once the monarch passes, he ascends the throne. Time passes and Maleficent, who was in love with Stefan, grows increasingly embittered. When Stefan throws a grand celebration to announce the birth of his daughter, Maleficent shows up and curses the child out of blind hatred of the man who stole more than he ever realized from her. Stefan entrusts the care of the infant to three inept fairies (Leslie Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple) until her sixteenth birthday but it is Maleficent who truly watches over the girl named Aurora (Elle Fanning) as she grows. Her exuberance and simple joy of life help Maleficent remember what her life was like before her wings were stolen and her heart broken. But King Stefan has fallen deeper into madness as each year has passed and will stop at nothing to destroy Maleficent. The script humanizes Maleficent and makes her the most sympathetic character in the whole affair. The principle cast is phenomenal. Jolie’s naturally angular features are exaggerated and it seems like this was a role her face was made to play. Copely is such an underrated actor. He delivers excellent performances in every film I’ve ever seen him in, hero or villain. He is such a chameleon that he seems to simply embody every character he portrays, like he just is the character instead of an actor playing a character. But the standout performance belongs to the cherub-faced Fanning, whose smile, laughter and pure joy is infectious. I had no problem believing that Aurora would melt the iciest of hearts. Like any good Disney princess, she makes everyone around her better people. Sam Riley is Diaval, a bird who Maleficent saves from death and turns into a man. He starts out as a henchman, being turned back and forth from a man into a bird (or various other creatures) as Maleficent sees fit, but as time moves on, becomes her friend and, more importantly, her conscience. The main complaint I have are the characters of Flittle (Manville), Knotgrass (Staunton) and Thistlewit (Temple). While all fine actresses, the characters are simply out of place in film. Like Jar Jar Binks in The Phantom Menace or Olaf in Frozen, the characters seem to be completely out of place in the rest of the universe and present only for the much younger viewers to have someone goofy to laugh at. Speaking of Frozen, it is nice to see Disney continue to explore other types of love than just the heterosexual romantic kind that dominates all of the classic Disney fairy tales. This is a great script with fantastic performances and the right mix of humor, action and romance making this a fairy tale film to be spoken about in the same breath as The Princess Bride, arguably one of the best live-action fairy tales ever committed to celluloid. The only other mild complaint I might have was the ending. I’m not 100% sure what I was expecting of the climax, and when it was over I did have to remind myself that this was a Disney fairy tale, after all. Of course there was going to be a happily ever after. This is director Robert Stromberg's debut film. He has worked on a slew of projects, mostly in the visual effects department, but has shared two Oscars for Production Design; the first for James Cameron's Avatar and the second a year later for Tim Burton's re-imagining of Alice in Wonderland. Screenwriter Linda Wolverton also worked on Burton's Alice in Wonderland as well as a number of other more classic Disney titles such as The Lion King and Beauty and the Beast. Maleficent was nominated for a slew of awards including an Oscar (Best Achievement in Costume Design), a couple of BAFTAs (in the Children’s Award categories) and a handful of Saturn Awards (Best Fantasy Film, Best Actress [Angelina Jolie], Best Performance by a Younger Actor in a Film [Elle Fanning] and Best Costumes).