Review of Maleficent (2014) by Radha V — 27 Jul 2015

Perhaps it shouldn't be a surprise that this only rates a 77%--this is the age where Transformers does VERY well. I was prepared, more maybe bracing myself, for an EH-experience in going to see this. Was only going bec of friends who were treating me.

I ended up LOVING this movie. LOVE. Why? The story was NOT predictable, it was moving, had FULLY DIMENSIONAL "bad" gal and, the BEST part? A love story between 2 characters that is not the atypical Disney narrative.

Despite the criticism of her accent and something which I am normally a pain in the ass about, I fell in love with AJ in this. She kept me in there, feeling every nuance a woman experiences as young girl in love, a woman betrayed in love, a mother melting with love for her child and the subsequent remorse for a poor choice in life. It was cool to see why the evil witch became the evil witch!

Perhaps the key thing missing from this tale for me is a more fully dimensional character of the King/father of Sleeping Beauty. He is a cardboard, cookie cutter 'baddie' with no redeeming aspects except in the very beginning. It would've added to the depth of the movie were there slight bits of complexity to his becoming the cold, heartless, crazed ego maniacal king that he came to be. His acting was compelling, not distracting or over the top which made me want more from him. Was this a casualty of directing, editing or story writing cutting room? I shall never know.

The actor playing Sleeping Beauty was great when she was good but was poorly in way too many parts. I was quite disappointed about. I REALLY wanted to get lost in her innocence the way that Amy Adams got me in Enchanted. As for Prince Charming, he was, sadly. somewhat worse than her. Then again, I think the role/script itself was flat. Bottomline: The failures/misses I experienced I lay at the director's feet. The overall balance of the movie was off bec BUT, taken as a whole, it delivers as fairly tale with real life applications.

The narration did a LOT for pulling the movie together and made it that much more efficacious in tugging at the heartstrings. I wouldn't mind seeing this all over again :)).