SPOILER NOTE: Spoilers will be highlighted in black so that you will have to highlight them with your cursor to read them. I apologize if for some reason it doesn't display right. Any possible spoilers will be in the 3rd paragraph.
I was recently invited out to a movie with one of my friends. We ended up seeing Maleficent. I was a little uneasy about it at first. I was worried that Angelina would look like an amazing Maleficent, but wouldn't really act the part. I worried that it would be far too watered down, and not be that impressive a story. I was worried it would just be a blow for blow live action copy of the original animated Sleeping Beauty and not really stand on its own. I was wrong on so many levels in my thoughts.
It truly stood on its own. You could enjoy it as a separate story in many ways without feeling the need to really compare it to the original book or the original Disney cartoon. It was much like Wicked vs The Wizard of Oz. You got this amazing view from Maleficent's point of view, which is what really allowed Maleficent to stand on its own without just being compared to the cartoon and book it was loosely based on.
It was also like How to Train Your Dragon in that if you have read the books and seen the movies. They keep some aspects from the books, but in the end the movies are completely different stories. Maleficent pays homage to its predecessors without just copying them.
The character growth throughout the whole movie was phenomenal. The way Maleficent grew and developed this seemingly motherly behavior and deep love towards Aurora was beautifully handled. It simply flowed so well. The wing stealing scene was iffy for me. I heard some people compare it to a rape scene. That aspect came through very strongly. However, the way Angelina portrayed Maleficent's anguish at having lost her wings seemed a little weak and maybe a little overly forced.
How her first love, Stephan, dealt with his guilt at having taken her wings followed by the rage/paranoia he developed when she put the curse on Aurora throughout the movie was a little iffy. Something about how he behaved and progressed from the moment the princess returned to his death just seemed a little off. It felt like a section of the movie that could have been so much more than it was.
Stephan didn't have any real reaction when Maleficent refused to kill him. He just immediately attacked her. There was no real reaction. It seemed like there was so much potential for maybe even just a moment of clarity even if it was still overshadowed by his rage and paranoia in the end.
Plot twists! I loved the plot twists throughout the last bit of the movie. There were some amazing moments where I expected things to kinda go the way of the cartoon and original book and there was instead this quick twist in things. The fact that the first time the prince tried to kiss Aurora it did nothing because, as he put it, they had only met once. It sent this message that love needs to be given the chance to grow and not just be rushed into. The kiss that woke Aurora was an adorable twist.
Also I thought that giving the crow, named Diaval, a much larger role in the film than he had in the cartoon allowed for alot more depth to certain scenes. The characters played off of him so well. It made scenes more fun, loving, enjoyable, and developed than they would have been if he had just been a crow with no real humanoid interaction.
In the end, I think everyone should see Maleficent at least once. It is completely worth it. It is a wonderful movie with an amazing cast and story.
No comments:
Post a Comment