Maleficent
/“I had wings once, and they were strong. But they were stolen from me.”
Filmology Rating: 1.5 out of 4
Oh how excited I was for this film. For those of you who have been following my Remember the Magic series you will know I have great love for the film "Sleeping Beauty". I think it is one of the greatest animated films I have seen and I loved the character of Maleficent. I loved how she was evil just for the sake of being evil. That made her only more terrifying. So when I heard that this film was coming out I was actually excited that Disney would be making a film about one of the greatest villains to grace the silver screen.
What I got, however, was heartbreaking and terrible. Now I get the concept of making her the misunderstood villain who truly has a heart of gold. I have seen "Wicked" and I love it but this is not "Wicked" this has material that has been around for years and it got messed up. I'm not one of those people who claims you have to stick to the classics and they should never be touched but when you make something like this, a retelling, then go all out with it. Show us scenes from "Sleeping Beauty" but how we actually missed what was really going on. Show us what happened the moment the camera cut away from Maleficent and how she actually feels sympathy for the child she put the curse on. Instead you get a character who adopts the little princess. Sounds like the actress playing the title character.
Other than the actual story told I have a problem with the script. The world is not set up properly and it expects you to just go along for the ride and to not pay attention. Don't worry about why things are happening cause this movie never well. And please try to actually give us some character development instead of just showing us what feels like a best of show. Yes, at one point I felt somewhat bad for Maleficent after the horrid deed was done to her but it could have been much more impactful if I got to know the characters more and wasn't told everything over montage or what at least felt like a montage.
The effects in this movie are also horrid most of the time. For having a world that is completely visual I have to believe that world and not keep thinking green screen the whole time. At least "Avatar" created a world I could believe in.
At the end of the day I was promised a tale of wickedness and villainy but what I got seemed like an ego filled drama. It didn't live up to the name Maleficent because Maleficent is clearly now Meheficent.
Rating: Let It Burn
-Jonny G