So, we all know how popular Wicked is. The tale of the Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the villain; the Wicked Witch of the West. It showed that there's always two sides to every tale, that a villain may not be as evil as we thought they were, it makes us think about what the villain's motivation is and, in some ways, actually helps film makers develop them better. It's all well and good having a guy destroying a city, but films like
'Chronicle' and Starkid's
'Twisted' show us why a villain does what he or she does the things they do, and in some cases even root for them. But how do you do that to a villain like Maleficent? Heck I didn't even realise she was a fairy until I saw this film and looked her up on wikipedia.
But anyway, once upon a time, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) the fairy fell in love with a human called Stefan (Sharlto Copley), who in the end betrayed her by...mutilating her body by stealing her wings in order to be king. Filled with rage and hatred, Maleficent curses Stefan's daughter Aurora (Elle Fanning), but Aurora might be the only one to help Maleficent find her former self.
In all honesty the film does start off slow. It's showing the background of Maleficent, yeah I can understand that. But the problem is that the actress playing a young Maleficent and the actor playing a young Stefan weren't that great. Then again it might have been them doing the best they can with a pretty meh script and meh effects (I'll come back to this). Even when we see Angelina Jolie she struggles to cope until she turns into her vengeful self. And I have to say it was when Jolie started acting more like the Maleficent we all knew that I remembered why I used to like her acting.
The story really does pick up when Maleficent's wings are stolen, which is actually a metaphor for rape.
Yes it is. It really is a great tale about how revenge and hatred and consume someone so much they lose themselves, without thinking of the consequences. You see how Maleficent's new frightening demeanor now makes the creatures she once protected fear her. In fact it's the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora which truly makes this film, how they develop one another; though Aurora develops Maleficent more than the other way round.
The effects, are hit and miss really, admittedly they were more hit than miss. Oh there are some truly spectacular visuals, in particular the Moors and Maleficent's wings are just beautiful to look at, and Diaval's (Sam Riley) shapeshifting and the different species of creatures look great, but there are other bits which are iffy. The three pixies Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Thistlewit (Juno Temple), and Flittle (Lesley Manville) just look weird when small, the battle scenes don't look right (for some of it anyway), and the thorn wall looks fake. But for the most part the effects are quite good.
The acting is actually like how I described the film; it's not really there at first but once it gets going it's very well done. I already mentioned Jolie's performance, but it's quite similar for Copley as well who struggled at first but then pulled off a great performance; though I feel his performance in District 9 was far superior. Fanning gave a great portrayal throughout as Aurora, but I think Riley gave a...what's the word I'm looking for? I think Riley gave a performance which may have gone unnoticed and didn't get the credit it deserved, he did a really good job as Maleficent's servant.
Really the only major weakness is the script which can be lacking in many areas. But overall, it's actually better than what I thought it would be. It's several hours after I saw it, and I want to see it again. The film starts off slow and wavers towards the end, but it's the middle part that saves it with the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora. The acting is great overall, the effects are spectacular in areas but meh in others, the odd laugh here and there as well, it is a great portrayal of Sleeping Beauty from the villain's point of view.
