Maleficent

 Maleficent 2014

• Director: Robert Stromberg
• Based on the novel: no
• Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sharlto Copley, Leslie Manville, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Sam Riley
• Personal “oh yeah him/her” reaction, i.e. have seen this actor in:
• Angelina Jolie – The Tourist, Beyond Borders, Changeling, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Girl Interrupted
• Elle Fanning – Ginger & Rosa, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Babel, Taken
• Sharlto Copley – Chappie, Elysium, Banlieu 9
• Leslie Manville – River, Mr Turner, Another Year, Cranford, Sparkle, Vera Drake, All or Nothing, David Copperfield, Milk, Topsy-Turvy, Secrets and Lies, Sammy and Rosie Get Laid, Dance with a Stranger
• Imelda Staunton – Pride, The Awakening, Harry Potter, Another Year, Cranford, Taking Woodstock, Freedom Writers, A Midsummer Night’s Dream Re-Told, Vera Drake, Bright Young Things, David Copperfield, Shakespeare in Love, Twelfth Night, Sense and Sensibility, Much Ado about Nothing, Peter’s Friends, The singing Detective
• Juno Temple – Far from the Madding Crowd, The Dark Knight Rises, Kick Ass Girls 2 St Trinian’s, Glorious 39, The Other Boleyn Girl, Atonement, Notes on a Scandal
• Sam Riley – Brighton Rock, control
• Why?  Why not?
• Seen: 10 March 2022 

The other side of the Sleepy Beauty tale.

Maleficent (Jolie) is a powerful fairy, protector of the magical realm of the fairies. The bordering human kingdom threatens to invade the realm and slaughter the magical creatures who live there.

Thoughts go to Russia and Ukraine. The Russians/humans aren’t as powerful as they think they are.

As children Maleficent and the human Stefan (Copley) were in love but he left her to become wealthy in the humans’ kingdom. Now, as adults and enemies, the king sends him to kill her. Instead, he regains her trust, drugs her and cuts off her wings.

She gets her revenge.

Jolie is convincingly evil, the computer enhancement is pretty, it’s fun to see Staunton and Manville as fairies turned nursemaids. It’s a clever, entertaining and eye-pleasing revision of the classic fairy tale. 

 

2 ½ * of 5