The core idea here of telling the story from the villain's point of view was the film's strongest selling point, but the problem here is that Disney can't follow through with this and instead reframe the story to make Maleficent sympathetic and essentially the heroine rather than the villain. This has a knock-on effect of taking away what was so compelling about the character in the first place - it is no surprise that the film's strongest moments are when Jolie gets to chew the scenery and the recreation of Maleficent's appearance at the celebration for Aurora's birth is a highlight. Indeed, apart from the strong production design, Jolie is what keeps the film entertaining - she was born to play a role like this - and it is a shame the rest of the film can't live up to her performance, with a weak alternate villain in the king, a prince who is essentially sidelined and some bizarre effects work of the "good" fairies who are inept, yet rarely funny.
Shout by Simon MasseyVIP 11BlockedParent2014-07-14T19:59:49Z
The core idea here of telling the story from the villain's point of view was the film's strongest selling point, but the problem here is that Disney can't follow through with this and instead reframe the story to make Maleficent sympathetic and essentially the heroine rather than the villain. This has a knock-on effect of taking away what was so compelling about the character in the first place - it is no surprise that the film's strongest moments are when Jolie gets to chew the scenery and the recreation of Maleficent's appearance at the celebration for Aurora's birth is a highlight. Indeed, apart from the strong production design, Jolie is what keeps the film entertaining - she was born to play a role like this - and it is a shame the rest of the film can't live up to her performance, with a weak alternate villain in the king, a prince who is essentially sidelined and some bizarre effects work of the "good" fairies who are inept, yet rarely funny.