Maleficent (6/10)

All things considered, I loved this story, the new twist, and the new background to one of the best villains from a classic Disney cartoon.

I thought the production value and the visuals stayed true to the original and I liked this world that first time director, Robert Stromberg who is more well known for visual effects, created. So of course the movie was visually stunning in almost every frame.

I adored Angelina Jolie's performance here. There were moments of awesome, like when she entered the castle to curse the baby. She was scary and brilliant at the same time. But in the trailer, this was the part where she sang that famous song from Sleeping Beauty. And I thought it was going to be in the movie, but it wasn't. I felt cheated. Actually, the trailers were edited really well and showed a lot of promise.

Everything went downhill from there. The direction and the storytelling was just not up to standards. Stromberg, as much of a genius as he is in the visuals department, he just wasn't strong enough to take the helm.

The most mishandled characters were the three fairies, Knotgrass, Thistletwit and Flittle played by Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple and Leslie Manville respectively. There were even more silly than in the cartoon and it's appalling what they were reduced to. Not only were they mishandled and mistreated but they were so underused. They were not incorporated at all into the subplot of Aurora growing up.

And like the above, so many things were overlooked in the storytelling. Continuity issues and loopholes all around. Maleficent can be so powerful at times and so weak in others. Her use of magic were so inconsistent in relations to the situations presented to her. It became so silly.

Stromberg also couldn't deliver punchlines. The one where Maleficent said she needed a horse, I didn't get that joke until a few more second too long and by then it wasn't funny anymore. And why did she use a horse when she was pressing for time? Again, a very silly mistake in the storytelling.

Also the editing felt too jagged, switching back and forth between the Moor and the castle. I was taken in and out of the movie too often by distracting transitions.

Elle Fanning was satisfactory as Aurora. I didn't fall in love with her performance though. Sharlto Copley still has yet to win me over ever since District 9. Playing the younger version of Stefan, I didn't think he was serviceable to that role. But when he became the king that lost his way to darkness, yes, I found that kind of role suited him better.

The ending also was a disaster. I'll leave that to the spoiler section below.

I really believe that Disney made a mistake taking the gamble with Stromberg. Such strong potential in this movie and it really failed flat. And Disney must have seen that this movie was not living up to expectations and should have pushed this to after the summer season.

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And now for spoilers.

In the cartoon, one of the most important scenes was when Thistletwit was interrupted by Maleficent's arrival just as she was about to cast a spell as a gift to baby Aurora. And after Maleficent left, she was able to change that spell in the hopes of protecting Aurora from Maleficent. That should have been included.

That kiss, that twist, it could have been even more touching, more emotional, just more. But Stromberg just didn't have it in him to craft a better scene. Given to a better director, the buildup could have been better, leading to this point where it could have and should have had that Disney magic.

The action sequence with the dragon towards the end had no sense in time or space. One moment the fire breathing dragon was successfully warding off the army and the next scene the dragon was subdued with chains. And it did not look plausible at all through what was shown onscreen.

My ending for this movie would have been Maleficent not killing off Stefan. Instead, have Stefan come back to sanity and have a relationship with Aurora, or be killed in another way that was not directly linked to Maleficent. Why? Because Aurora would have to react to this incident that could be painful to accept even though she didn't grow up with her father.

But instead, nothing. No consequences, no reactions, Aurora accepted it with smiles and was carefree about it. Again, what horrible storytelling.

And in the final monologue, it was said that "Sleeping Beauty" was the name given to Aurora. Funny because Aurora was only "asleep" for an hour or two at the most. Hardly any reason to be given that nickname.