Welcome back to The Randomizer!
It’s that time again. A time when the creatures of the night
come out to play, when the moon is full and the air of screams and maniacal
laugh fill the air with dread and glee, and of course…we get to go Bieber
hunting.
What better way to celebrate? Well…you’ll have Alice Beadle
to thank for that. Only a month ago, I did my Sleeping Beauty review and how
much I didn’t like the many aspects of that. After much debating with myself
about what to do and suggestion from hers truly, I decided on a comparison
review, with this film.
I will admit, upon first viewing the first trailer and
pictures, I was very sceptical of how this picture would click when released
this year. With an…interesting new habit of remaking animated classics into
live-action pieces, beginning with Universal’s Snow White and the Huntsman, I
was not a big fan of that film in particular. It looked like a historical
fantasy, but it fell flat in many places. The villain is giving a quick
backstory, for some reason. The story is ok, for some reason. Kirsten Stewart,
for some reason. Disney decided to come into this too, their next effort being Cinderella…I
guess to make Cinderella more empowered? Although there is Richard Madden
making an appearance. Erm….just make sure you’re not engaged to marry someone
else first mate. Last time that happened didn’t turn well for you.
Anyway, my interest peaked in Maleficent when people started
to say it was really good on Facebook, though I will admit I never saw in the
cinema itself. Lara Croft got good reviews in playing Maleficent, but the story
is criticised, the characters as well criticised and being seen not as a great
film. Although of course, that’s what this review is for!
Again I make no promises of being kind hearted and
responsible if you all cry. Then again this is an more adult version of
Sleeping Beauty so you should all man up. At least until I finish talking. Also
because this is live-action, I will be talking about the overall look of the
film instead of animation. The story, writing, acting and music will remain the
same for the most part. So let’s go to the new world of female empowered
Disney, and look at one of the most popular Disney villa…..her……characters of
all time.
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| I prefer Little Miss Awesome if you don't mind |
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5 STAR REVIEW:
·
STORY
·
LOOK
·
ACTING
·
WRITING
·
MUSIC
-------------------------------
·
STORY
The story retells the story of the original Sleeping Beauty,
as we have not been given the full story. Well nice to know that propaganda is
introduced as well. Two sets of land are divided between humans and fairies,
the latter living in an enchanted woodland called the Moors. Maleficent of
course lives among the fairies, where one day as a young girl she comes across
a boy called Stefan in the Moors, and soon become good friends, soon developing
into lovers. As time passes, Stefan does not visit anymore, becoming seduced by
the greed of the human world. Apparently. Anyway, when the king of the castle
fails in attacking the Moors, he decrees anyone who kills Maleficent will be
king. Stefan goes to meet her, and in a quite dark tone, drugs Maleficent with
a sleeping potion and cannot kill her, but instead takes her wings. Maleficent
is upset, and finds solace with a crow called Diaval, whom she turns into a man
to save his life and takes him on as a servant. She raises a massive wood of
thorns around the Moors, and takes a more Queenly role as the other fairies bow
to her, bar three familiar ones of colour.
The story than becomes the Sleeping Beauty story, with some
changes. The fairies look after the baby Aurora (ahem)….with Maleficent’s help.
Maleficent over time grows fond of the girl as she grows to her 16th
birthday, when the curse is about to happen. Aurora in turn enjoys Maleficent’s
company, until she finds out she was the one who cursed her in the first place,
and runs back to the castle. Maleficent even comes across Prince Phillip and
puts him to sleep, so he can bring True Love’s kiss. When the curse finally
happens, Phillip kisses her to no avail, but Maleficent kisses her with good
results. Stefan still tries to kill Maleficent, and almost succeeds until
Aurora finds Maleficent’s wings and gives them back, giving her the chance to
defeat him, and he falls to his death as he tries to attack her once more.
The story ends with the two kingdoms reunited, and
Maleficent flying high into the air as the sun sets.
I’ll get the flaws out of the way first because they are
some that do glare up in the face of the film.
Iron burns fairies. How? Because. This is a bit of a nitpick
because it isn’t really explained how it burns fairies. Maybe it’s a contrast
between the human world and the Moors, but nothing has been officially stated
why this is the case. Plot to move forward perhaps.
One of the bigger problems in the film is King Stefan. Stefan’s
development before the events of Sleeping Beauty doesn’t really make sense. He
has a kiss with Maleficent before he stops visiting due to the temptations of
the human world. We’re not shown those temptations of greed and developing
ambition at all in the first ten minutes of the film, so I couldn’t exactly
understand how he changed from a boy into Sharlto Copley. He just becomes bad
because…narrator. This was more a lost opportunity to give us an interesting
contrast with King Stefan in Sleeping Beauty, who seemed more three-dimensional
than most of the other characters combined. Two minutes might have been enough
to show.
The three fairies…still bug me. With a change of names
(Flora becomes Knotgrass, Fauna becomes Thistlewit and Merryweather becomes
Flittle. Yeah, I cared that much too), they become more comical relief this
time and have less screen time throughout the majority of the film. To be
honest, they did have some funny moments, like dropping a cake and fighting
each other. But I’d wonder if this was meant to be a contrast to how the three
fairies were in Sleeping Beauty with their intelligence. Needless to say on its
own merits, these fairies are as bad as the originals, if not worse considering
they are less intelligent on how to look after Aurora. There’s comic relief,
and just plain stupid.
 | ||
| That's...better? |
Another thing that should have been better thought is the
legend of Sleeping Beauty herself, as the more familiar parts are thrown in
because it’s Sleeping Beauty. While I don’t think they’re hugely distracting,
it would have been nice to have made some logic in character thinking instead
of just throwing in references for the sake of it. It’s fun, but could have
been tweaked a little bit.
So what do I like about the story? While the flaws are
there, I didn’t feel like it was a terrible story far from it. It was nicely
paced for its quite short running time, with how the characters sort of
developed over-time in their situations. I suppose my favourite thing is the
relationship between Maleficent and Aurora.
I don’t really have much of a problem believing how these
two come together and how Maleficent does come to care about her after all the
incidents that happen in Aurora’s life. I will admit there are moments where
I’m not entirely convinced, at least at the start, that Maleficent is growing
to care, but I think that’s more the character than most. Like with Aurora
about to fall off the cliff, Maleficent doesn’t seem to think much of that
until she does fall off the cliff and saves her life. But other than that,
through Aurora’s genuine curiosity of the fairy world and Maleficent slowly
liking her as she grows up, their relationship is probably one of the more
believable aspects in all the Disney films ever. The one part I do like is
Maleficent’s quiet devastating moment when she can’t remove the curse she laid
on her. It shows brilliantly how Aurora has affected her throughout the years,
along with how Maleficent giving her the true love’s kiss at the end is more
justified through watching the film. It is simply that good.
Aurora (still not main character) is better, which is more
of an improvement than I can say. She does have some good character reactions
against Maleficent and the fairies, as well as helping Maleficent in the end. I
don’t think there’s anything that really stands out about her, just how she
relates with Maleficent and the other characters. But I found her good enough
all the same.
Diaval left a good impression on me. At one point, I did
feel he was going to be a generic good advisor sidekick. He kind of is, but
that is downplayed nicely so we don’t have to be told right on-screen, and does
have a caring heart for Aurora more to begin with than Maleficent, even telling
Maleficent off about true love’s kiss, eventually helping close at hand to save
the day, even as a big fiery breathing dragon. I just found him all-around
awesome, one of my favourite characters in the film. Quiet, yet willing.
Maleficent herself turns out to be a bit of a complex
character, in a good way. Her fleshed out motivation is more better, though
would have been much more if we got an inkling of how things can be more
precious. Maleficent’s wings, and Stefan’s child. Get the idea? Would have made
for better character, just having those little ideas in her head. She is also
probably more intelligent here than in Sleeping Beauty, for she doesn’t really
feel the need to go and attack Stefan, knowing her magic is good enough to hold
off the hordes of Stefan’s men. It’s one of the few times a protagonist is
written well, although an argument could be made that she is the only character
made competently. Compared with Stefan and the fairies, they’re given far less
attention and suffer for it, not being as wildly interesting as the film wants
us to take.
Oh yeah, and Prince Phillip is here too. So much better this
time around, and less screen time, but he never really bothered me an ink,
especially with questioning how he doesn’t know Aurora well enough to love her.
He seems more properly rounded than other characters! Such a strange world,
Disney is.
 |
|
Don’t give me
that look, it’s your own fault for being a creepy stalker in the last film so
we’re taking some...precautions. My movie, my rules bitch.
|
The story is good fun despite the number of flaws present in
the film. Some of them do hurt the story to an extent, but the good stuff can
outweigh that really well. There is something really enjoyable to take out of
this film much more than Sleeping Beauty ever really did for me, despite the
few missed opportunities here and there. It’s something I definitely wouldn’t
mind watching again.
Story gets one full star.
*
-----------------------------------
·
LOOK
As set design goes, like Sleeping Beauty, the film does go
for a kind of medieval style once more with sort of bright colours in a dark
background. Added to that however is the surreal nature of the Moors, bright
and forest like with a shade of green in the sun at the beginning, and at night
becoming dark again but with shades of light blue and purple standing out,
giving it a trans-fluorescent feel.
I really do like the look of the Moors at night. The colours
just work so much better in that situation and give more of an interesting side
of that world in terms of nature and the creatures that appear in that setting.
Not that that world in the day is bad, it’s still quite pretty but it does look
like a generic good place for fairies to live in to a point, and wasn’t that
much appealing. I’m not sure the camera shots worked in that respect,
especially for the day time when Maleficent is flying because it doesn’t allow
to take in the world you’re seeing before you. With the night time, it works
better because you’re allowed to see the colours, you’re allowed to see the
world before you. Well that’s what you get from being a production designer on
a Tim Burton film.
 |
|
Digitally
removed are: Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham Carter
|
In contrast we don’t see any of the human side of things,
where it’s only the castle you see as opposed to any other world, and don’t
really explore it that much. It is sort of bland because you don’t really get a
feeling that this is an interesting place, or feel that much tension (which I
will come to later in the acting part). If we got a bit more exploration in
this area on par with the Moors stuff, it might have made for better viewing
and perhaps more personality.
The only real character that does stand out in design of
course yours truly. Oddly enough and sporadically, she changes into her famous
get-up when at the Christening scene and for the most part she doesn’t look
bad. The horns on her head are pretty cool to look at, and her clothing is
pretty too, especially with some shots I do think in the right light give her
some justice. But I think there is little hat she wears too, which for me is
isn’t bad, but there were some moments I thought it didn’t add well to her
look, and a little bit distracting. The other characters don’t have anything
specific that stands out massively or sets them apart, apart from Diaval who
has some crow’s feet features over his face.
Going back to camera shots for a moment, the way we are
shown the worlds, characters, etc, there are a few shots I think are missing
completely, and don’t really add up. Like Maleficent’s wings when they come
back to her, you don’t see them fly over to her, you just see them pop on and
she starts flying again. Missing shots like that create a discord of narrative
without showing how things happen. You could argue that the audience don’t need
to see that, because they will know the wings will pop back on, but then that’s
another distinction of the difference between showing and telling. Showing that
shot would help create a more visual experience, and less distracting.
That said, those shots are far and few in between. There are
some really good ones like with Maleficent’s horns in the moonlight, but other
than that, it’s all pretty serviceable. Nothing again stands out particularly
here either, which is fair enough, it’s not as if I was expecting anything
symbolic or anything in visual terms in this film.
So the look of the film has some really good moments and bad
ones, falling somewhat in between. It’s not something that spectacular to look
at, but for the few moments worth you will get some of your money’s worth of a
good visual world to look at and not think it bad at all. Some stuff could have
been more better, but it’s still ok all the same.
Half a star.
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·
ACTING
Acting wise, it’s more a mixed bag for me, some good
performances here, with many a bad one thrown in.
Sharlto Copley as King Stefan is definitely a case of the
latter. He doesn’t do a horrible job, but it’s definitely on the pantomime
edge. The way he delivers his words makes him very incomprehensible when he’s
yelling, more so in the middle at his soldiers when they fail to break through
the wall of thorns. ‘NOTHING IS INDESHSTRUCHABLH’. Seriously, watch that scene
back and tell me you don’t laugh at that. It probably doesn’t help that his
character isn’t good to warrant our attention, in a written sense. It’s hard to
remember anything else that he does good in this film, just how uninteresting
he was and just going mad from the situation at hand. Not a good choice.
 |
| He won the Bane Award for Best Public Speaker this year, so that must be good. Right? |
Elle Fanning as Aurora wasn’t bad, especially when you
really see the facial expressions she delivers on her character. The excitement
she gave when she is finally in the Moors, the sadness when she sees that
Maleficent is the one that cursed her in the first place, she does manage to
pull those off very well. Her delivery is a bit on and off at the same times.
It can sound quite wooden at moments and isn’t always on par in the right
moment of time. But it isn’t awful in anyway. You can hear the squeak of
excitement in her voice when she calls Maleficent ‘fairy godmother’, and how
you do feel the impression that she wants to stay in the world when offered, as
well as being a little bit frightened of Phillip when she first comes across
him. So Fanning does fine in the role. Little moments that can be off-putting
here and there, but still all-round good despite what little of the character
there is.
From what I could gather from the amount of little
screentime, the three fairies were good. Nothing too spectacular to talk about.
Imelda Staunton, Leslie Manville and Juno Temple are plain silly, but you can
kind of tell they’re not taking it seriously and having fun with their roles.
It’s a conflict where I still don’t like the characters, yet do think they
retain some dignity in the acting. Some…dignity, not all of it. If they had
more meat to their roles, maybe there would have been something more.
One person I don’t have a bad word to say about much is Sam
Riley as Diaval. Maybe that’s because he is not as featured a great deal in the
film and is underplayed nicely, but he is good in the role. His delivery is
quiet, but can carry a whole range of either sarcasm, or not caring when it
comes to being turned into an animal. I can also believe his excitement at
looking at Prince Phillip as a means to break the curse, even if it doesn’t
make any sense (they’ve just met pretty bird).This is the first time I’ve seen
him act (I have Control on DVD but never watched it. I know, I need a life),
and so far he left a good impression on me. Just hope it won’t be ruined in
future films.
 |
|
You haven’t
seen Control? You have no life, and I think Mibs Bayliss would agree. WATCH IT!
|
So…Lara Croft as Maleficent. She is good in the role. Not
great, just good. There are some moments where she is gold, like her delivery
of the line: ‘What?’ when Aurora says she’s her fairy godmother, and how quiet
she goes after she tries to revoke her curse, saddened it cannot be broken. One
good moment too when she finds her wings gone, just the expression is enough to
understand the execution of betrayal, although the shaking of her hands feels
kind of generic. One of the problems is there isn’t enough to the range that
Maleficent has for Croft to pull off. It’s more of a character thing because
even though the acting is good, the character needs more to her. This is
something I will come to in writing. It’s serviceable to the story and that’s
good enough for the moment.
For what we have, the actors are all pretty solid in their
roles, bar Copley. While they’re not all stand out in anyway shape or form,
they’re not at all mostly terrible either. Riley is the better actor in this
film for me, but even he cannot fathom my piss-taking of Sharlto Copley as King
Stefan. Perhaps if the roles were better written, we would’ve seen something
gorgeous on our hands, which is what I will come to next.
Acting in this case gets half a star.
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·
WRITING
On the writing side of things, there are definitely some
things worth talking about, especially one thing that has cropped while looking
up other reviews and Youtube.
When Maleficent loses her wings thanks to Stefan when they
meet again after many years, that has been compared to the theory of rape. In
one way I can believe that because she is drugged and forced to lose a part of
her body to a man. It is a good idea to go with a protagonist who does seek
revenge to take something precious to him later on, Aurora. The only issue I
have is the ‘why?’ behind the ‘what?’. That is to say, back in story, Stefan is
just written to be evil, there is no development to show the meaning behind his
motivation. Even on first viewing, I didn’t take it as a rape scene, just
taking her wings, and even than Stefan has no logical complexity to him. I’m
sorry but this is botched writing at best, a missed opportunity sadly to make
it more relatable.
 |
|
Dragons
excluded….of course!
|
I don’t really want to be too harsh on it because I did find
some sense of enjoyment in the writing, and how when it’s good, it’s really
good. The true love’s kiss plot does make a hell of a lot more sense than in
the original, not just because it adverts the staple of love, but why it came
to happen in the first place. It’s a good twist to have, even if you can see it
coming a mile off. Also they were a few lines that really made me sniff with
laughter, like Maleficent staring blankly at Aurora when she says she’s her
fairy godmother, and Diaval sort of pointing out true love in the form of
Prince Phillip.
The only other thing is: As a fairy-tale, should it really
matter about logic? I’m extending this to Sleeping Beauty too in this case, and
well…it’s difficult because to me they’re both concerned with the emotional
experience than logic, appealing to your feelings more than your logic. But
with the different bits I’ve mentioned, and the fact that they’re both films,
yes, there SHOULD be some amount of logic to it because it can make the story,
and characters thus, more relatable and understandable. Yes, the act of rape or
taking someone’s wings off is terrifying, but it’s not just the execution, it’s
the mind-set of the person commiting the act that deserves some viewing of a
kind.
So with that argument, does magic need some logic to it,
like where does it come from, how does it work? Well again it’s complex,
because we don’t readily question the fact that magic exists in Disney films,
we just accept it. Again, it’s more a
case for appealing to emotion, not logic. It helps us get into the story a
little bit more, and gives us some more tense moments. In addition too is the
setting, where you’d expect some kind of magic to take place, like with Lord of
the Rings or Harry Potter. They’re all fantasy worlds, and magic just seems the
done thing, never fully understood and never fully questioned.
To sum up, there are many a missed opportunities in the film
with regards to characters and such in writing. But it’s not overtly terrible,
just something that could’ve been so much more if it had been tweaked in the
right direction. Instead it’s just ok. I think I’m beginning to see a pattern
here….
Writing gets half a star
--------------------------------------------
·
MUSIC
Now this is a bit more difficult, because where I can
remember some of the music vividly from Sleeping Beauty, I don’t remember
Maleficent’s soundtrack very well, upon first viewing. Some things did stand
out but that’s it, thanks to James Newton Howard composition.
 |
|
*I’m not sure
I can hear the music Fairy Godmother, it’s too quiet.
*I think
Justin Bieber had a hand in it, so they’re keeping it as low as possible.
*Oh….
*Yep, we need
some dignity
|
I do get a feeling at watching different clips that the
soundtrack is simply forced into the background, subsided by what is being
shown on-screen, and not ALLOWING us to hear the emotions at play, if that
makes any sense. It can be hard to listen when it feels like the focus is on
the characters and nothing else, especially in some fight scenes. It doesn’t
help to bring a better experience to the film, to me at least because you’re
being forced to hear the dialogue and effects, not the music.
The only few times when you can really hear the music is
when Maleficent is bringing the curse onto Aurora, bringing forth bombastic
drums with a nice little beat, and violins to match too. I did enjoy listening
to it because it does heighten the tension properly. Along with the scene of
Aurora waking up, that little piece of music with violins and piano felt quite
nice to listen to, especially with the chorus, but also felt just fine. Fine in
a scene with such a believable relationship, is a bit annoying because it
deserves much more. Another time is when before Maleficent gets her wings back,
the music is again bombastic and awesome once more, before sort of teetering
off back into the background again.
Believe it or not, ‘Once Upon a Time’ does make an
appearance at the end credits, this time sung by Lana Del Ray. AND…It’s not
that good. Fine but not that good. From the sound of it, they tried to make it
more darker, but as a personal preference it doesn’t do for me. I’m not sure it
suited Lana Del Ray’s initial style because even though she is a more of a darker
singer, the tone doesn’t feel like it matches the lyrics because it’s meant to
be a happy song about lust. Yeah, I’m sticking with lust, it’s basically what
it is. But she does do a good job of it, I’ll give her that. The song, not
lust. I don’t know her personal preference. Not sure I’d want to listen to it
again really, just not a great deal interesting.
 |
|
You can try,
but it’s not working my dear.
|
As music goes, the music can be good if given time to breath
along with the voices and other sound effects. But other than that, they don’t
really feel distinct or memorable, which is a sad thing in this films case. I
bet you I won’t remember it come this time tomorrow (Thursday).
Music gets no star.
-----------------------------------
FINAL THOUGHTS:
As part of the…interesting new line-up of remaking Disney
animated classics, this was an improvement over Snow White and the Huntsman.
The acting for the most part is good, the story re-tread is good to go through,
Maleficent is made more interesting and complex, and the world of the Moors too
is really nice to look like on-screen, bringing a magical world into
believability.
But I think many might agree that there were plenty of
missed opportunities in this with regards to making truly memorable characters,
to connect with its audience in a way that might actually make people think, oh
this isn’t just mature for a Disney film, it actually says something that can
connect to woman in particular. Alas, it does not, instead going for the
execution except without explaining what the motivation was. The music would
have been better too, if it was a bit louder on par with some of the other
scenes. I don’t think it’s a terrible movie by any means, just not a great one,
and that’s where the problem lies. It’s being held back and not allowed to
explore deeper emotional territory that both women and men can understand.
In comparison to Sleeping Beauty however, I prefer this
version over that one because on watching Maleficent, there is something here
trying to get out and be liked. Maybe it’s a generational thing and the times
we grow up in, or at least attempting to be a better story. In that it succeeds
and fails at the same time. But we should at least admire what it’s trying to
do, and lament how better it could have been. A good film, but with so much more
held back.
 |
|
Well…this is
an awkward situation…you don’t happen to any children do you?
|
FINAL RATING:
2 ½ *
HALF AND HALF
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That's it for the month guys. See you in November! :)
