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Disney's MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL (10/18/19)
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Started by Bosco685,

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Bosco685

Bosco685

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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a film with many problems, but I feel like the title is among the most glaring of them.


Both the 2014 original and this follow-up have taken pains to point out that the title character, embodied by Angelina Jolie, isn’t quite the ghastly creature she’s been painted as in various tellings of the Sleeping Beauty story. Sure, she’s unpleasant at times, sometimes irritable, and usually misunderstood. But calling her the “Mistress of Evil” right there in the title is a weird approach to take when the entire rest of the film is about disproving that.

 

With screenplay by Micah Fitzerman-Blue, Noah Harpster, and Linda Woolverton, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a fairly lightweight concoction that steers away from deeper thematic dives at every opportunity. To some extent that makes sense, as this is a “fairy tale” movie with that big Disney label front-and-center, right up top, and that brand is all about “safe” family fare. As such, the film never quite gels tonally, feeling both too complicated for kids and too superficial for adults.

Now, mind you, I’m not saying I wanted the movie to climax with Maleficent wielding a blood-drenched battle axe, beheading all who stand in her way, but some attempt to deepen the world with real stakes might have been remarkably helpful in adding some narrative weight to the thing. If the story is about an impending war between two races, then that requires a bit more of its execution than the lip service it’s given. Jolie is great, Pfeiffer is great, but despite its lead character’s impressive wingspan, this second Maleficent fails to cast much of a shadow.

 

Overall Rating: C

 

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zhamlau

zhamlau

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I think this effort to eliminate the idea of there being a “bad guy” and turning them into just a misunderstood “forced to resort to badness” has been one of the worst trends in modern film making. It makes films less compelling and only allows for only a narrow band of villain left (like evil businessman).

No more evil means also on some level no more good.

Also on a basic level, it’s hard to sell a movie called “mistress of evil” when no ones allowed to view her as evil.

Edited by zhamlau
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