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Concept - Good
Retelling the story of a classic Disney villain, showing her younger self and how she came to be a villain is a very intriguing concept for a movie. The general expectations for this movie are probably to see one of Disney's greatest villains of all time and how she fell into darkness.
Story - Terrible
This is a live action movie is based on the classic 1959 Disney version of the story, "Sleeping Beauty". However, this movie takes countless liberties to completely change the story which many of us grew up watching. Whether deliberate or not, the movie seems to try and promote certain political agenda by making it a movie where there are only strong and good women. Every single male character in this movie is either an idiot or insane, and that really takes away from the overall entertainment factor when you realize you're simply watching someone's political statements, which I don't believe most people went to the movie to see. We have strong and interesting female roles in other movies such as Ripley from the Alien series and Elsa and Anna from Frozen; these were done extremely well. Unfortunately, trying to send political messages with Maleficent really took away from the movie.
Another major factor that made this movie somewhat disappointing is that Maleficent is one of the classic Disney villains who is generally evil, and in most stories aside from Sleeping Beauty in which she has been involved up until now, she has always been looking out for herself, even when she went out of her way to help others. She is even Maleficent is the leader of the Disney Villains. However, this movie has tried to make a hero out of her. If this was done using people in real life viewed as villains in the past 100 years, I think a lot of people would be upset with such controversy. There are a few other story changes as well, including a very notable change to Maleficent's powers.
Aside from political messages and extreme changes from the original story, the overall narrative of this movie is just far too bland and uninteresting filled with plot holes galore. The single saving point of the movie's narrative is the first 30 minutes of the movie where we are introduced to this magical world and shown Maleficent's childhood.
Visuals - Good
Unlike the story, the visuals of this movie are extremely well done. The movie's director Robert Stromberg is also well known for his visual effects work, especially in fantasy settings.
The camera work in this movie is mostly very well done, having fantastic aerial shots and great cuts.
The designs for characters and creatures are also done very well. Many of them have the Avatar feel to them, along with a horde of Groots which helped keep the movie slightly entertaining.
Acting - Decent
Most of the acting in this movie is relatively well done. Not all of the parts given to the actors are great parts, but Angelina Jolie does a great job portraying Maleficent, and Elle Fanning plays the young and innocent Aurora quite well.
Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather (the 3 fairies) whose names have been changed to Thistletwit, Flittle and Knotgrass for whatever reason might have been acted decently, but their characters will probably get on your nerves and aren't likable in this movie.
Overall:
Especially if you are a fan of classic Disney films, I think the story is going to be the greatest plunder of an otherwise decent movie. Therefore...
GO TO THE THEATERS AND/OR BUY THE FILM
BUY AND WATCH AT HOME
RENT IT
WATCH FOR FREE
NOT EVEN WORTH PIRATING
