Movie Review: Maleficent
When I saw the trailer for Maleficent I actually groaned. Looks like another remake of an old fairy tale movie but this time its by Disney and starring Angelina Jolie, so why would I want to watch an updated version of The Sleeping Beauty just because its trending these days to change the fairy tales? I never liked Sleeping Beauty to start with, and even though the movie came out in Australia while I was there and there was a big bed with purple flowers displayed at the door of the cinema celebrating its release, I didn’t even waste a moment of thought towards not watching it.
I stood my ground, not caring if I watched the movie or not, until I saw everyone, and by everyone I mean every female I know, gush about the beauty of Maleficent and how I was crazy refusing to go see it. It was until of one my friends who told me she was dragged to the movie herself and she came out wanted to have horns like Maleficent that I decided I might want to check the movie out, I mean how bad can it be? Right?
The mistake I made was thinking the movie was a remake of the sleeping beauty fairy tale. If it was, they would have called the movie Aurora or something. The story is not about the sleeping beauty, it is about the supposedly evil villain, the once good fairy turned evil Maleficent, which I have to admit was quite an interesting angle to tell the story from. No one cares usually about the villain and what their journey to evil was all about. In this movie’s case, a very important lesson is very tangible: there are two sides to everyone, and you can even find good in bad people or bad in good people.
There is quite a twist however to the sleeping beauty’s fairy in the very end and I know many women who saluted the path it had taken, but quite frankly I thought it was a bit creepy and a tad lame. To each their own I suppose. In any case, it isn’t the greatest movie ever produced and its been a tad overrated especially with that feminist twist, but its Angelina’s beauty and performance as Maleficent that is breathtaking and keeps pulling us women back to the theatre simply to gaze at her. Would I watch it again or want to own it on DVD? I doubt it, but I did enjoy Angelina’s performance and overpowering gorgeousness and her apparent age and time resistance and I did have trouble looking at my reflection in the mirror afterwards for quite a while.
P.S. Maleficent’s lipstick is a shade called “True Love’s Kiss” by MAC and is SOLD OUT EVERWHERE! I want it even though it would look horrible on my complexion and I suspect would clash with my teeth unless I whiten them several times :’(
