So last week they released another Disney Live Action remake and only just now did I finally get around to seeing it. Hey, it’s one of those sequel remakes, so it doesn’t really count and it’s current box office gross proves my point.
I have not seen the original Maleficent, mainly because I didn’t feel like it, but still I checked out the sequel to see where it lines up in 2019’s slate of live action remakes. I have come to the conclusion that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil easily knocks all of those other remakes out of the park. By Disney standards that is, it’s nowhere near Joker or even El Camino good.
What I liked about this movie is they nicely fleshed out the really boring original movie. Princess Aurora is a bit more of an interesting character. There are some politics with real consequences in the story instead of being a petty argument about places we have never seen. The world is a bit more unique with the different creatures introduced and I like what they have done with Maleficent. She’s an interesting character and her dynamic with Aurora is quite well handled.
It is its own story, you know something you expect from a remake. I would be open to see more movies like Maleficent, but I have to remind myself it’s Disney and they like to make all their movies stale and repetitive like they’re all on some sort of conveyer belt. Mistress of Evil has some good ideas, the cute CGI characters don’t look too horrifying and I like how colourful it is. Too bad it also has some missed opportunities and a recycled plot that we have seen hundreds of times along with it being a bit of a mess.
Was Maleficent evil in the last movie because she definitely isn’t in this one? Everything she does is completely justified, but everyone still treats her like a villain and is completely oblivious to the so obviously evil Queen, Michelle Pfeifer. Once she shows up she remains antagonistic for the rest of the movie and it was quite frustrating seeing these supposedly intelligent characters being tricked and duped by her over and over again.
Probably the biggest miss is the introduction of the magic bird people. We don’t know much about these creatures except they were forced into exile because they have the stupidest weakness known to man. Maleficent is apparently the most special because of some ancestry and it isn’t very clear why that’s the case. This ultimately leads to a final battle where these rebellious birds are easily killed off by magic watermelon bombs. The confusing magic of how these stupid bombs work baffles me! The battle has zero stakes and there are countless idiotic moments from both sides.
Overall Maleficent: Mistress of Evil embraces the average level of blockbuster movies. It has a bad plot but some points are visually impressive. I think this movie would have been worse if it wasn’t for how good Angelina Jolie is as Maleficent. Despite being the title character she feels like such a side character, which sucks because everyone else is really boring. It has the potential to be better, but the people making it don’t seem to care.
Here’s a happy 5/10. It has it moments and I’ll give it some credit as I do now feel inspired enough to check out the first Maleficent.
More horror movie reviews coming during the rest of October and beginning of November and I have been The Blog Complainer, signing out.
