Movie Impressions: Maleficent

Yes yes I know it is not a new release, but I was feeling quite bad that there wasn't a movie impression this week. Then I caught Maleficent on TV and I remembered my intrigue about this when it released though my scepticism and general lack of interest in the subject matter held me back from seeing it at the cinema. Now after seeing it I just had to review it and asked myself that why Movie impressions should be restricted to just new releases? So every once a while I will also discuss an older release but most of the time it was a new watch for me.

Maleficent is the first in the line of the Disney empire's latest strategy to make live-action adaptations of their classic animated stories which was followed shortly after by Cinderella. Maleficent had two things riding for it: ye' old nostalgia that companies love to exploit and a genuinely new perspective to a classic story and that too a villain leading movie. Then you realise its done in a directorial debut by Robert Stromberg. The movie certainly looks awesome in a stylish way but there is not much story or depth to it to really add any significant value in the larger sense.

The movie first of all has a really high production value and it would be since this is I believe the most expensive film by a first-time director ever made. It looks like its directly out of the fairly tale and exploits all forms of colour contrasts which I do appreciate from a film. Large halls and sprawling grounds, it does set-up a contained world very nicely.

The cinematography here benefits the most from the production design and it fully exploits its scenes with stylish lighting and really runs with the fantastical in total stride.

The story follows the eponymous character played by Angelina Jolie and follows her life growing up to be the protector of the forest kingdom known as the moors, and how she becomes into the villain we all know from her perspective in the Sleeping Beauty story.

Actually that's half-true because even though it does show Maleficent's growth as a character and her perspective in this story very well. But, you can't really show another perspective of the classic story when you pretty much change the classic story. I mean this is a very different story to Sleeping Beauty, perhaps too different. Spoiler Warning: Maleficent dies in the original and somehow she lives in this version and she brought Prince Phillip to Aurora ? I just feels a bit lazy when they could've justified her position in a satisfying way keeping in with the original story. Also even if they had to deviate from it they could have played with the 'happily ever after' message much like Frozen did since there doesn't seem much point to change the story if the message is still pretty much the same. My overall point being, departure is good but there should be a good creative justification for that.

Apart from that also you will notice about 35 or so mins into the movie that the story hasn't moved much and yes there isn't much story here, however again it does cover Maleficent's arc very well as a sort of a redemption story but again its not the original which takes a huge hit for me.They play a sort of protector angle with Maleficent which works in some parts but somehow I never received the impact I should have felt. The lack of depth to the story really does feel too apparent and makes the movie feel slow since there is not much action that takes place. That being said, with its slower pace it does take time to develop its characters more carefully which prompts better growth.

Angelina Jolie was one of (if not) the best part of the movie, frankly it was perfect casting as she effortlessly nails the vengeful and nuanced Maleficent while also adding some gravitas and nuance in her performance as she plays a character who is a victim of her circumstances and makes you root for her with some quite heavy scenes. Also really dig the make-up cheekbones which makes her face more angular and those eyes do creep you out at times. The other best part was Sharlto Copley as King Stefan. I really liked his arc as we see him as an ambitious young man to a paranoid king sunk into schizophrenia. It feels quite realistic considering her daughter's situation and his performance really takes that to a whole new level. There is also a messed up love-story between them which I feel mixed about but it does provide some justification to Maleficent's current state. Elle Fanning also played the carefree Aurora really well, its just that the writing behind her does not give her too much to work with so it may come-off as one-noted, but the original one was pretty one-note as well. Her fairy-godmother relationship with Maleficent is something that I liked and I thought was a clever angle to explore as Maleficent grows fond of Aurora and eventually starts to regret her curse.

This movie is not bad, its got some great performances and has a stellar look, all of which point to a very confident and ambitious début director. Its just that I do not understand why they had to deviate from the source material this much to make Maleficent an anti-hero character, correction they made her a hero character which does take off the intensity of the situation while the same justifications could have worked better in the original story. However I would still say give it a watch just for Jolie's rather brilliant performance because its as real as maleficent gets. In the end I'm still not sold on this new strategy of Disney because it looks to me more like a strategy to milk than an actual creative endeavour since these classics needn't be touched again in the first place. Though, I will see how it pans out as time passes.