Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley
Once upon a time, a young fairy known as Maleficent (Jolie, Isabelle Molly, Ella Purnell) fell in love with a human boy named Stefan (Jackson Bews, Copley, Michael Higgins). Desiring to be king, Stefan severed Maleficent's wings for the honour and Maleficent's bitterness motivated her to curse Stefan's daughter, Aurora (Charlotte Chatton, Fanning, Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Eleanor Worthington-Cox) but Aurora grew, Maleficent began to change.
Despite their status as one of the giant corporations for family entertainment, Disney have never really been ones to stick in one place too long and have always tried to venture somewhere unusual; a tendency going as far back as their 1940 experiment with music and animation, Fantasia. Maleficent sees Disney push themselves once more into unfamiliar territory, doing a live-action retelling of their own Sleeping Beauty (1959), moving the story into darker directions.
To look at the promotion going into Maleficent, the change is clear. Angelina Jolie's menacing stare from the posters, Lana Del Rey's equally unsettling take on Sleeping Beauty's song, Once Upon A Dream, the promotion looks like some strange combination of Sleeping Beauty, Peter Jackson's Lord Of The Rings trilogy (2001 - 2003) and Neil Jordan's The Company Of Wolves (1984). The film itself is still significantly darker than Disney's usual fare, but far from the almost horror film notions the trailers and posters conjure up.
In truth, the film is lighter than most will expect and whilst not a bad movie by any means, the realisation that the film isn't as radical as it first appeared underlines that the film is in many ways, fairly ordinary. Recent movies such as Oz The Great And Powerful (2013) and Snow White And The Huntsman (2012) have gone to similar places, after all and even Disney themselves have made films that are at least slightly darker than their usual output, such as the superior Hunchback Of Notre Dame (1996).
But that's not say that the film isn't worth watching and enjoying. In a genre and from a studio that isn't known for moral ambiguity, Maleficent provides a great performance for Angelina Jolie. There's absolutely no doubt that this is her film to shine in and her performance as the titular lead is mostly pitch-perfect. Elle Fanning does well as Princess Aurora but she's a princess from a pre-existing story in which actually doesn't actually very much or have much in the way of interesting character as a result. In this take on the story, she still comes off as a kind of princess that Disney had seemingly shrugged off years ago, only bringing them out with parodies of those characters, like Jezelle in Enchanted (2005). Sharlto Copley's King Stefan is worth a watch and the three pixies who work to look after Aurora (played by Lesley Manville, Imelda Staunton and Juno Temple) provide some decent comic relief.
The design of the film is really nothing new in terms of these darker takes on fairy tales and the 3D effects are pretty much unnoticeable. It's different but only because it's different for Disney. Maleficent is a good film if you like Disney's usual output and are a fan of the old Sleeping Beauty story. If you want to see Disney tackle their image and mould it more towards the horror genre, then you'll probably have to wait a while longer.
No comments:
Post a Comment