new blog: Review: “Maleficent” or How Disney Made a Hilariously Bad B-Movie

[LeahZ]

-This thread has spoilers-


Maleficent has been highly anticipated by Disney fans since it was first announced and after the first clips of Angelina Jolie in the title role were released the hype started to grow increasingly. Throw in a re-imagined version of “Once Upon A Dream” sung by pop artist Lana del Rey in a haunting style along with an intense marketing campaign and Disney can’t fail, right? Well, the good news is Disney is going to make a ton of money off of teenage girls and Once Upon A Time fans, but for those who expect decent acting and dialogue out of a blockbuster, buckle up for a disappointing 97 minutes.

Read more here:

http://blog.wdwinfo.com/2014/05/30/...intentionally-made-a-hilariously-bad-b-movie/

 

[k5jm]

Awesome review, guys!

I kept waiting for ya'll to say "This is a great movie....for me to poop on!" (said in my best Triumph, the insult comic dog, voice)


I am still yearning for a score of the same or better quality as "The Rocketeer," by James Horner or the John Barry classic score to "The Black Hole."

 

[GAN]

Excellent review -I left unimpressed and don't like the whole villain gone good storyline. Although my wife LOVED it, so who knows.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

Maleficent was a mixed bag for me. It was fantastic hearing her back story and why she was so angry at the kingdom. On the flip though, she was only her real villain self for like 20 min of the movie. That bothered me...a lot.

The fairies also had me cringing. Why were they renamed? There was no purpose for that. They are Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather in all ways imaginable even coming down to their red, green, and blue outfits. I found that to be highly distracting throughout the film (not to mention their larger than life heads a la Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland when they were in fairy form).

The other creatures from the moor were bizarre on all levels. Some were mean, some were nice, some were crude, some were pleasant. Weird, weird, weird.

As a Sleeping Beauty fan, I appreciated the fact that Maleficent's curse scene used most of the original dialog from the animated feature. Honestly, I don't think there could have been any way to change it and still do the scene justice. Angelina killed it. Bravo to her.

I was, however, surprised by the change to the "True Love's Kiss" scene but am starting to like it. Throughout the film, I honestly thought that Diablo, wait they renamed him too, uhh..Diaval...was going to be the one who ended up with Aurora. The way he protected her, looked at her, stuck up for her, etc. made it seem so. Having Maleficent kiss the princess was totally out of left field but I can appreciate it as being a flaw in a character that is purely evil (or supposed to be anyway). If the true villain was portrayed more in the film, this could have been a very powerful scene.

With this being said, the film's last five minutes or so were so cheesy I felt like I left the theater after eating rotten Swiss cheese. It was absolutely abysmal and reminded me of what took place with Oz: The Great & Powerful, which also could have been an amazing tale. I would have been able to give more credit to this film if the ending wasn't so bad.

Still, I think it's worth seeing in the theater if you are a Maleficent/Sleeping Beauty fan. Just be prepared for these changes which can definitely be annoying, and even, aggravating.

 

[jcb]

Awesome review, guys!

I kept waiting for ya'll to say "This is a great movie....for me to poop on!" (said in my best Triumph, the insult comic dog, voice)


I am still yearning for a score of the same or better quality as "The Rocketeer," by James Horner or the John Barry classic score to "The Black Hole."

It seems to me that Disney has gotten more mileage out of the Rocketeer score than it did the movie itself.

 

[k5jm]

It seems to me that Disney has gotten more mileage out of the Rocketeer score than it did the movie itself.

Ain't that the truth! I love the movie, but the score is great. And I hear it EPCOT in no less than 3 places. The giant tombstones, Soarin' queue, and the Fountain of Nations.

And Christy always asks why I say "Big Gopher" when we are in EPCOT.

 

[GAN]

I'm over a friends house tonight and we were going through some old boxes -you know, old cassette tapes, and stuff and we come across a movie pin from the rocketeer. Pretty cool -kind of a strange coincidence.

 

[DisneyKentucky]

I'm going to be on the opposite end of the cool kids table. I thought it was a good movie. The visuals were beautiful and the young Maleficent parts were great. Sure, some of you may not like it because it's not a retelling of the original but it works as a telling of the story from a different POV.

Side Note: I watched this at the AMC at Downtown Disney with the whole 3D & EXT stuff. I pray they put Guardians of the Galaxy in there on my next trip back August 1st.

 

[mdvlprof]

We're seeing it after church today. Plan to enjoy the movie..

 

[PinkBudgie]

We saw it yesterday to escape the noise of our neighbors renovating. DH and I both really liked it. We both like Once Upon a Time. And it reminded us of the stories from that show.
Spoilers Below:







I agree about changing the fairy names. I didn't like that. And I knew it was going to be Maleficent who woke her up. In the context of the story, it made sense. She was the one who came to know her best. Not the prince. Despite the similarities with Frozen, I thought it was more realistic ( if you can use that word when talking about a movie with fairies) because she only met the prince once. Although I can see how it could have been the bird too. I like understanding the motives of people and I like shows where the villain has different sides to his or her personality. I can't wait to see it again.

 

[mdvlprof]

Just got back from seeing it. I liked it. Parts were cheesy. The last couple minutes they could've done without. Overall, I thought it was good.

spoiler:
Stephan gave Maleficent 'true love's kiss' for her 16th birthday. Should have made more of that.

 

[OKW Lover]

Saw that Maleficent pulled $70 million in box office for its first weekend. Not bad.

 

[ArielRae]

DH and I really liked the movie. Also Once upon a Time fans.
We agree that the fairies and her bird names should have stayed the same.
No one is born evil life causes it so the same for maleficent.
She still is considered the most evil character as before. Not much greater evil than a woman scorned and boy was she.
she regrets her actions during a fit of anger and revenge and tries to make it right against someone who did her no harm.

 

[mytripsandraces]

Saw that Maleficent pulled $70 million in box office for its first weekend. Not bad.

I read that it was $170 million. Was it really only $70 million? The true tale will be its take next weekend. I loved it (took it as its own new story, but appreciated its references to the original Perrault story and Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY, especially the curse scene and the reference to the Sleeping Beauty Castle walk-through), but I understand that critics are divided.

 

[Orangeman98]

Jolie's acting made this movie. To say this was an "Hilariously Bad B-Movie" is a complete exaggeration. The special effects combined with Jolie's acting elevated this movie to something that I wouldn't necessarily run to see, but I would walk.

My concerns were more with the unneeded violence at certain points (the battleground scene could have been more heavily edited, for example). In surveying the audience, I noticed a lot of little girls in attendance (my 5-year-old included), and she was a little uncomfortable at points. The ending was happy, and that's all that mattered for her.

 

[surferdave]

This is what I posted on the low traffic movie board.

The pacing of the movie was maddening. I think it must have suffered from some poor editing.

Too many of the plot devices for flipping the story were reminiscent of Frozen (True love's kiss doesn't work! The real love comes from the villain from the fable who is really good! Princess stories don't really need significant male characters, you go girl!). I thought that whatever literary or artistic point they were trying to make by presenting the villain's point of view was overwhelmed by making every other character in the story either completely evil (like the two kings) or barely present or nearly superfluous (like Aurora's mother or Phillip). In fact, the story almost reduces to "people bad, fairies good (but pretty stupid other than the main star, boy were those 3 fairies painful to watch)".

I don't know if all of this was the result of being too eager to feature Jolie and not having time left to develop any other characters, or if they were just not capable of making the antagonist sympathetic (which was apparently their mission) without making the protagonists all one dimensional villains themselves. If they can't accomplish that then I'd rather not see more films like this out of Disney. Unfortunately it's an easy money grab to let a Hollywood A-lister ham it up for 90 minutes as a Disney icon so I probably will.

 

[*NikkiBell*]

My concerns were more with the unneeded violence at certain points (the battleground scene could have been more heavily edited, for example). In surveying the audience, I noticed a lot of little girls in attendance (my 5-year-old included), and she was a little uncomfortable at points. The ending was happy, and that's all that mattered for her.

I disagree. The film is rated PG, something which is listed in all commercials and advertisements as well as on the website, ticket stubs, and movie posters. According to the Motion Picture Association, films with a PG rating are deemed as those in which "parental guidance [is] suggested – some material may not be suitable for children." As a result, parents are advised accordingly. Whether or not an individual brings a young child to see Maleficent and have it make them uncomfortable is not on Disney at all because of this. Not all Disney films are for kids; I think that is a common misconception which is very unfortunate.

 

[ToddyLu]

I saw it yesterday with a friend how is more of a Disney movie buff and a TA with her own company. It was very entertaining for us and we were enthralled with Jolie. After seeing her Maleficent I just can't picture anyone else giving a face or personality like she did...just like no one else could have played Jack Sparrow.

The fairies were a little aggravating but it was more their voices for me. THey could have developed Diaval more and he would have been more interesting.

And after hearing the new Once upon a time I will definitely purchase the soundtrack. We loved it.

 

[DisneyKentucky]

Jolie's acting made this movie. To say this was an "Hilariously Bad B-Movie" is a complete exaggeration. The special effects combined with Jolie's acting elevated this movie to something that I wouldn't necessarily run to see, but I would walk.

My concerns were more with the unneeded violence at certain points (the battleground scene could have been more heavily edited, for example). In surveying the audience, I noticed a lot of little girls in attendance (my 5-year-old included), and she was a little uncomfortable at points. The ending was happy, and that's all that mattered for her.

My 5 year old daughter gave it a standing ovation. Also, she said the young Maleficent was her favorite.

 

[Batgirl67]

I saw it Sunday afternoon and enjoyed it overall. I agree with the points made about name changing and the last scene, they were not needed.

Perhaps a point it is trying to make is that within all of us there can be evil/villainous traits as well as good/hero traits. Heaven knows if I would act on villainous instincts if I were betrayed so brutally as Maleficent was. It was a deep, deep wound she had and the movie showed that time did heal it in the face of beauty and light (Aurora).

Just a thought.

Cheers!

Lisa