Depending on how you prefer your revisionist fairy tales to be, you would either love or hate Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Synopsis
In spite of the events of the first movie, Maleficent continues to be regarded as evil and a threat to humans. After Prince Phillip proposes to Aurora, Maleficent reluctantly agrees to attend a family dinner in Phillip’s kingdom of Ulstead, even going to the extent of concealing her horns. Things, sadly, still go south, and in the chaos that ensures, Maleficient seemingly attacks Phillip’s father with the sleeping curse. Outraged and indignant, Ulstead prepares for war with the fairy folks of the Moors. Phillip’s mother, Queen Ingrith, also seizes the opportunity to conquer the Moors once and for all.
Snappy Review
There are mixed reviews for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil flying about at the moment.
Those who enjoyed it, such as me, loved the CGI backdrops, the thrilling action scenes, and the expansion of the new mythos established in the first movie.
Those who loathed it complained about the stuttering story, the half-baked backstories of Queen Ingrith and Lickspittle, and the ridiculously quick wrap-up. Oh, yesterday, I read a review lamenting how the entire movie was so “Disneyfied” i.e. too happy and sanitised.
I’ll put it this way. Whether you enjoy this sequel, or not, largely depends on how you prefer your fairy-tale retellings. Specifically, how far you expect them to deviate from the source material.
I enjoyed this movie because I like such experiments to be bold re-imaginations, but ultimately, still fairy-tales. Thus why I didn’t mind the story gaps or sanitised ending. The movie was to me, no better or worse than any standard new-age fairy-tale.
As for the acting, well, Michelle Pfeiffer demonstrates she has everything necessary to be a Snow White evil queen. Angelina Jolie, on the other hand, erm, it didn’t work this time.
She’s still gorgeous in several scenes, don’t get me wrong. The problem though, when she’s not, she borders on being lame. At times, her attempts at dark humour are even … downright cringe-worthy.
Read my other Snappy Movie Reviews.
