MOVIE REVIEW: MALEFICENT


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Young fairy Maleficent lives in an enchanted forest without a care in the world, until a terrible betrayal of the one she loved turns her into a monster. Maleficent seeks revenge and puts a terrible curse on a new born princess Aurora. 

Years later Aurora is all grown up and bonds with Maleficent, who little by little starts to regret what she has done. But the curse is still there and the day of Aurora's sixteenth birthday is approaching…

MALEFICENT is a real treat for the fans of Angelina Jolie, who plays Disney's greatest villain with a likeable energy, straightening up the illogical moments in the story with one mischievous look. This is a superhero fantasy movie with all the elements of a modern comic book pop culture.  Maleficent goes through a typical stages of an Avenger - she fights evil, she looses to evil, she is consumed by the darkness but finds her way back to make things right, she even temporary looses her powers and she has a deadly weakness - a sort of a Kryptonite. Yes, Disney and Marvel has much more in common than it seems.

But let's not forget we are watching a fantasy. We are treated with all the beloved elements from the GAME OF THRONES: there's a  evil hiding in the forest, there's a huge battle scene and there's a dragon. The good news that all this glory clocks off just after an hour and a half. One thing we know for sure - Maleficent is not going to be a trilogy.

The second most annoying element of the movie (the first place I give to the semi-redundant Prince Charming) is the narrators voice, that would not shut up. We do live in an age of over explaining and it is not long that American movies for Australian audience will have to have a different cut. Like everyone else I read Sleeping Beauty.   Do you really think I need clarifications on the matter?

On a positive note there are a few genuinely sad and touching moments in MALEFICENT and Angelina Jolie's performance goes far beyond what was written for her in the role.

The new version of Disney's classical fairy tale is far from being innovative, but it is great fun. Let's wait and see if Maleficent The Super Hero will soon get her own comic book treatment.

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