Krishna
It is true that the storytelling from the point of view of the bad guy or gal, to explain why they did what they did has been done for a long time now. You have the broadway play Wicked as arguably the most famous example, and you have Star War prequels where they show how the cute and cuddly Anakin Skywalker turned into the Evil Lord Darth Vadar, but there are also less known examples One Crazy Bastard Flew Through My Psych Ward (the other side of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest). I do not know if this genre has a name, but if it did, Maleficent will fit right into the mould.
And the Disney predilection for changing fairy tales continues. This story does not conform to the original story but deviates from it, as is their version of The Little Mermaid from the original story. (“The kids will not like the original ending” may have been the reason then.) They went on to completely mangle the story of Hercules for their animated version, not caring if the kids learn the mythology totally wrong. Here they deviate from their own story as well (as told in the Sleeping Beauty cartoon decades ago). None of this takes away from the fact that this is a very good movie to watch – if you are not upset about lack of authentication in stories.
There is also the twist ending, reminiscent of their other recent movie hit, Frozen. I do hope that they do not overuse this so that it becomes a cliché of its own. Still interesting, to say the least.
The story is told from the point of view of Maleficent, who is a fairy, and who protects and falls in love with an ambitious and ruthless man. He promises to be with her but all he wants is career advancement. Finally, he becomes the King (Yes, sir or madam, we are talking about King Stefan). He was caught as a thief in the Moors, the kingdom where magical creatures live. (An opportunity for special effects guys to do their thing). He was from the Land of Men, bitter enemies of the creatures. Maleficent has wings at this time.
When Maleficent learns that he is an orphan, she pardons the theft but falls in love with him. He on the other hand is after glory and goes to work for King Henry. When Henry tries to invade the Moors, he is defeated, single handed by Maleficent and being heirless and near death, vows to give his entire kingdom to the man who kills Maleficent. We also learn that iron is bad for fairies and burns them.
Stefan sees his chance and tricks Maleficent into a false reconciliation. Since he truly loved her, he finds he cannot kill her in her sleep (like the guard in Snow White story, ironically) and cuts off her wings as proof to Henry that he killed her. Becomes King.
At this point you are wondering where the story came from. None of this is in the fairy tale, as I remember it. This is just to establish why Maleficent harbours a hatred for King Stefan – not because he forgot to invite her to his girl’s birth celebrations.
Then, the story goes on to the curse of sleep with a needle, and Maleficent watches over the girl to make sure her curse becomes real, and, slowly, in a fashion reminiscent of Gru in the first movie of Despicable Me, she slowly finds that she falls in love with the girl she had sworn to destroy. Also finds that she cannot undo her own curse (with the clause, that she herself provided, not the fairies, that Love’s First True Kiss will undo the curse.) The explanation of her condescending to include this proviso is fascinating. Based on her own experience, she knows that there is no such thing as True Love, that all men are cheaters and have unfeeling hearts, so that clause will never come true, right?
She is now desperate with worry and watches her own – now frightening – curse inexorably take effect.
The story is very well told, the raven that always accompanies Maleficent is brought into the picture very cunningly – she saves a raven and it accompanies her. Also in the story is the dragon (that she turns into in the original cartoon but brought back differently here).
The little touches and the humour in the dialog keeps the movie elevated on a higher plane and makes this movie a very entertaining one.
Interesting to see that Elle Fanning who plays Aurora is the younger sister of Dakota Fanning.
The twist ending puts everything right. Yes, there is a prince whom Princess Aurora meets accidentally, as in the original story but I will leave it at that, and not spoil the ending for those of you who have not seen it earlier.
Let us say, 7/10
– – Krishna