Maleficent

Be warned! I can come up with no logical way to defend my decision without putting spoilers in this review. SO! SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING SPOILER WARNING

Beautiful and dark... just like Disney I guess

Our story begins with a young fairy named Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) finding a human boy named Stefan (Sharlto Copley) stealing something from her realm. The two eventually become fast friends and eventually start a relationship; but soon find it was not meant to be and go their separate ways. The boy longed for wealth and power, while the fairy was content protecting her people. The king of the land the enchanted forest lies on has been making war on the creatures so humans could walk through their woods, it just so happens that Stefan is a ward to the king. The king loses a battle to Maleficent and decrees that the person who can kill her will inherit the crown. One thing leads to another and Stefan brings the wings of Maleficent back to the king as a trophy of his "kill" (he couldn't bring himself to kill her, just cut off her wings). This act incurs the wrath of the fairy and she storms his castle on the day of his daughter's christening, laying a curse on his daughter, Aurora (Elle Fanning) as revenge for her wings/his betrayal.  

Okay so everything you ever knew about Maleficent is going to be disregarded for this film. We knew her as the end all be all evilness from Disney's villain vault, now she's not.... she's the "hero." The story actually grew on me after a while, it was dark while still retaining a smidgen of Disney charm. I like that Maleficent was a hero, I like that the three fairies in charge of her were dumb, I like that her father was actually crazy, and I like that charming barely had a role in this. It seemed that the writer for this was trying to take a note from their most recent success ("Frozen") and go with a different type of true love breaking the spell, which was interesting and cool. Where they kind of lost me was the ending.

If you ignored my spoiler warning this is where you are going to get punished, my main problem is with the ending. 

I wouldn't say they lost me completely I would just say that I expected more from the production company that killed off so many parents. Basically, instead of Maleficent dying she redeems herself and lives happily ever after. I know this is the Disney ending everyone has come to expect, but they already committed to a dark movie so why hold back on killing Maleficent (and this movie was really friggin' dark due to one scene in particular). I expected to have my heart broken by seeing Maleficent fall, and Aurora being without a person she had come to love. Instead, I got the Disney ending of "nothing bad happens, everyone is cool, go on about your lives." It was a major buzz kill for me. I was thinking of this movie as "Sleeping beauty from the villian's perspective," instead it turned out to be "Villain is turned to a hero." Weird and I didn't have that great a time with being led a stray.

This is probably going to have to be noted by people as well. Remember when I said that one scene in particular was really dark? Expect your mind to instantly go to "date rape" when Maleficent has her wings stolen. I know I am not the only person out there that thought this, so my mind is not in a dark place, the theme is very hard to escape when you see it played out. Stefan sneaks Maleficent something in her drink and she wakes up with no wings. The look of sheer horror and betrayal, mixed with the alienated victim look she has after she screams out is inescapable as "date rape." That is why I said this movie was unusually dark, and it is a very powerful/moving scene.

Now that I can finally get away from the story line, let's talk acting. This movie makes me think that Angelina Jolie is one of the great under sung actresses of our generation. She was spot on through out this entire movie, and stole every single scene she was in. The scenes where she was on screen I didn't want to blink for fear I would miss true talent in the works. Not to say the rest of the cast was bad by any means. Sam Riley did well as Maleficent's minion, and should now have a strong career ahead of him as the fangirls swoon over him. I have always been a fan of Sharlto Copley and this movie changed nothing since he played the mad king brilliantly. Elle Fanning seems to be topping her sister in this performance, which is no easy task.

The last problem I had with this movie was the pacing. If they had stretched this movie out to two hours I don't think it would have felt like they were racing to the end. Everything just happened so fast, and I feel that this movie could have done with a few more scenes of Aurora and Maleficent bonding. Basically, Maleficent had to spend one night with her to completely regret her decision in cursing her (yes, I know she was already on the fence  from watching the child grow up, my statement remains valid). As good as Angelina's acting was, she couldn't make up for the pace throwing me off on: why she actually cared about this girl. 

Final Verdict: See it in theaters It may have seemed rushed and poorly finished, but I still liked this movie. You have to see it on the big screen to get the full effect, so go do that.