Movie: Maleficent – Mistress of Evil
Krishna
This is aimed as a sequel to the movie Maleficent which came out in 2014. Here is my major problem with it. At least the earlier movie purported to tell the story of sleeping beauty from the point of view of the witch, Maleficent. At least it stuck to some parts of the story, even if some other parts were pure invention on Disney’s part.
But this one? This one is pure fiction. There is absolutely no relevance to the original story. Some characters are the same, true, but it completely deviates from the story-line (yes, because they finished with the entire fairy tale in the earlier movie). But given all that, is it good? Let us review the story first.
This story occurs five years after Maleficent (Angelina Jolie again) gained custody of Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning again).
Aurora grows in the enchanted forest and being a young maiden, one day stumbles into a river and exits the forest. She meets Prince Phillip who instantly falls for her and proposes to her. She accepts the proposal. The crow Diaval (who turns on and off between human and crow form) overhears and blabs to Maleficent, who is furious.
Delighted with Aurora’s response, Phillip takes the news to King John and Queen Ingrith (the latter played to delightful perfection by Michelle Pfeiffer). They are delighted and ask Phillip to invite Maleficent, Aurora and all the Moorfolk for dinner.
We realize that the King, Queen and the General hate the Moorfolk and the Queen is planning a nasty surprise to eliminate all the Moorfolk when they are wining and dining with the royal family.
When Maleficent arrives she is deliberately insulted, burned with iron (Iron burns dark fairies and Maleficent was given an iron bowl to sup from) and openly insulted. Her natural fury grows and she prepares to leave. Shocked that Aurora chooses to stay, she flies away but is hit by an iron arrow and falls into the river. She is saved from death by a dark fairy and taken to their land. Maleficent did not realize that there were a whole city of others like her.
They come to her rescue. In the meanwhile, after a lot of back and forth and where the Moorfolk have been lured to watch the wedding of Aurora and Phillip they are imprisoned and ready to be poisoned, the counterattack by the Fairies begins.
Meanwhile both Aurora and Phillip realize the treachery of the Queen and fight on the side of the good forces.
(Yes I realize this sounds rather disjointed but that is the problem when you try to summarize an action filled fantasy. It is all jumbled up)
All ends well. Let us leave it at that.
Entertaining, even though from the point of view of authenticity, it is all gibberish.
6/10
– – Krishna (March 2020)