The live-action reimagining of the Disney Sleeping Beauty
story from Maleficent’s point of view was released in 2014. It explained Maleficent as a fairy queen of
the Moors who loved then battled with King Stefan of the local kingdom. She cursed his daughter to prick her finger
on a spinning wheel when she turned 16 after he had betrayed her and cut off
her wings. As Maleficient watched the
child grow up, she grew to care for her as a daughter and after finally
defeating her terrible father, named her Queen of the Moors and all the fairy-folk
that lived there.
This sequel picks up five years after, Aurora is still Queen
of the Moors and Maleficient their fairy protector. Some poachers stealing fairy folk are killed
in the Moors and Prince Phillip’s father and mother, the King and Queen of
Ulstead name Maleficent a villain. Despite
that, Phillip proposes to Aurora, and The Queen tells him to invite Aurora and
Maleficent to dinner. That goes about as
well as you would expect as the Queen reveals herself to be the villain in this
version, constantly belittling Maleficent and her kind. The King seems to want peace between the two
kingdoms and knows that the wedding is the key.
After being verbal assaulted for most of the meal, Maleficent gets all
angrily-glowy and the King mysteriously passes out. The Queen accuses Maleficent and she leaves,
demanding Aurora come with her. Aurora,
of course, decides to stay with her ‘new’ family. As Maleficent flies away, she is shot with an
iron weapon the Queen has been designing.
Fairies are basically allergic to iron.
She plunges into the river, but just before drowning, she is rescued.
Spoiler alert from here down, only because I didn’t see any
of this bit in the trailers…
She’s rescued by another dark fairy, just like her with
wings and horns, who takes her to a special cave where their people are
living. There’s a whole bunch of them
who have been chased away from their lands by the encroachments of humans and
the one who rescued her, Conall, wants her help brokering a peace. Their second in command, Borra, is thinking
it would be better to wipe out the humans.
Plots, battles, a wedding, and an attempted genocide ensue.
The movie is directed by Joachim Ronning and is absolutely
stunning visually. The world of the moors
and the fairy life in them is just gorgeous and well worth a look in 3D. The costumes are amazing, and the action
sequences are pretty fantastic too. The
story is fine, but gets a little more complicated than necessary. There’s a lot
of people with grudges that are huge and barely explained. The cast is wonderful and seems to really
enjoy playing in this world.
- Angelina Jolie really embodies Maleficent perfectly. She seems to completely revel in this character. The look is incredible, the horns and wings are perfect, and the irritation with humans is just perfection. She’s even better when pushed towards the hatred and evil that Maleficent is remembered for in the animated classic. Also, she turns into a giant dark phoenix in this movie for…reasons? To symbolize transformation?
- Elle Fanning returns as Aurora and gets a little more to do here. She’s blindly suckered into the Queens machinations, even though she’s dripping evil villain vibes at dinner. Once she realizes she’s been had, Aurora does her best to help remedy the situation and Fanning gives her a sense of justice.
- Harris Dickinson is now Prince Phillip as opposed to Brenton Thwaites who is filming Titans. He’s a little boring, but that’s what he’s given. His whole motivation is his love for Aurora, which does put him at odds with his mother. By the end he’s found a way to unite the two kingdoms.
- Sam Riley returns as Diaval, Maleficent’s right hand raven. He’s there to provide exposition and request to be turned into a bear instead of a raven at some point.
- Jenn Murray plays Gerda, the Queen’s right hand woman who is viciously cold and cruel – and surprising passionate about playing the organ, especially when it’s filled with fairy-killing powder.
- Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Connall. I had no idea he was in this and was shocked when he showed up. He seems to be leading the fairies in their cave and is concerned they will go extinct without forming peace with the humans so that they can co-habit.
- Ed Skrein plays Borra, who spends his time flexing, growing vines as a weapon, and telling everybody that the fairies will go extinct if they don’t go to war with the humans and eliminate them. Also, he spends a lot of time looking at Maleficent all sexy, which she seemed to be into.
- Michelle Pfeiffer plays Queen Ingrith, and steals most of the scenes that she is in. She hate the fairy-folk, and I mean, hates them. She has developed a weapon that will wipe them all out and then develops a plan to lock them all in the church and simply kill them. She’s evil on a whole new level and the scene between she and Jolie are just fantastic.
Overall, the movie is very enjoyable and lovely to look
at. I feel like inside it there is the
possibility for an R-rated version where Maleficient discovers this hidden cave
of other sexy fairies and ends up in a love triangle with Borra and Conell. Or maybe that’s just what Ed Skrein was selling
– I was buying it. As I mentioned, the story is a little weak. It is too complicated in some places and also
too simple in others, but the visuals really save the movie. I will say that for something aimed at kids,
the scene with all the fairy folk trapped in the church and slowly being killed
with the red powder the Queen had created is a bit much. It is a little scary
and more than a little disturbing, so be forewarned if you’re planning on
taking little ones. Eventually they get rescued, but it took way too long.
6 out of 10 – would have been higher if it had been the
movie Skrein seemed to think he was in.
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