Review of Maleficent (2014) by Alexander L — 03 Feb 2015

Maleficent.

Once upon a dream I knew the greatest Disney villain and her story. She was the Mistress of All Evil, the mighty Maleficent scourge of King Stefan's kingdom and commander of all the powers of Hell. Then they made this piece of garbage and completely ruined her. But it's okay. It can be entirely disregarded since this film has absolutely no relevance to the basic plot of Disney's Sleeping Beauty whatsoever. In this film, Maleficent the great lady above all the fae is horrifically maimed in a power play by the future king Stefan of... magical kingdomland. She turns into a bitter dark ruler and curses Stefan's child to be killed on her 16th birthday. So far so good. Lovely performance from Angelina Jolie playing Maleficent... for one scene. In a beautifully perfect scene, Maleficent curses the child, actually using dialogue from the original film, proving the filmmakers had at least seen it once. The rest of this film can be considered a betrayal of the character and Disney's vision. Maleficent develops an attachment to the child Aurora which baffles me as she has no personality whatsoever to get attached to. Maleficent is stripped of everything that makes her Disney's greatest villain. You want a Maleficent fix, just go pick up the HD remakes of Kingdom Hearts and play those. This film can take a thrown sword to the heart. 2/10.