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5 months ago

Maleficent

a review by CinemaSerf

Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" is easily my favourite Walt Disney adaptation and this film takes up on by far the best character from that delightful animation - the wicked witch "Maleficent". It tells us how this true epitome of wickedness was actually quite a good-natured elf until an evil king duped her and stole her wings. Now that had to hurt - not to mention get her a touch irked, so she set out on a vengeful existence culminating in a curse on the young Princess "Aurora". As per the novel, the three good fairies take the princess to hide in the forest but the crafty witch tracks them down almost immediately and has some fun manipulating them all as the baby grows to womanhood, at which point this story takes an unexpected turn (from the book too!). The cast are really good in this: Angelina Jolie - in the title role - could have been a bit more menacing, but she is still on good form, as is Sam Riley as her rather kindly sidekick "Diaval" whom she changes into whatever she needs to do her bidding. Elle Fanning is just a little bit too "nice" (for me, anyway) as "Aurora" and Sharlto Copley as the rapidly losing the plot "King Stefan" just a bit too hammy but cutie Brenton Thwaites does a half decent English accent as Prince "Philip" and the three fairies inject some light-hearted comedy into the proceedings too. The whole thing, though just a wee bit cheesy, is still a really well produced watch with some superb visual effects. Though it looks great, I didn't like the ending, much - but then I always wanted "Darth Vader" to win, too...