Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Image credit: Wikipedia

If ever there was a movie that did not need a sequel, it’s the goody-goody tale of a misunderstood fey that became known as the Mistress of Evil: Maleficent. But we have one now and, for no other reason than it was a date night and this was the only thing that we were mildly curious about, my partner and I went and saw it.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil chronicles Maleficent’s reaction to Aurora’s planning to get married to Phillip. When invited to the neighbouring Kingdom for dinner to meet the would-be in-laws, the King becomes cursed and Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) is wrongly accused. While fleeing from the castle, she is struck down, but rescued by a stranger and taken to a secret place that harbours the rest of her kind. Filled with vengeance and wrath, the oppressed fey wage war on the human kingdom, with Maleficent leading them into battle.

First thing’s first, do not be fooled by the film’s title! While Maleficent does feature in the movie, she has absolutely no storyline, no character development and practically no dialogue, she’s basically just there to look flawless in plunging necklines and fantastic gothic costumes.

This is a truly terrible movie! Brought flat to its face by it’s incredibly weak and bad writing. For me, the biggest travesty in cinema right now is that writers are not being held in the high regard they need to be. When you think about it, the writing of a movie is the skeleton, the very foundation on which the film stands and if it’s weak or corrupt or just downright terrible, the whole film falls apart and all the audience are inspired to do it spit and pee over its broken body… At least that’s how I felt with this film. The writing is so terrible I can’t even begin to list in how many ways! The story is predictable, the character motivations are weaker than a soap bubble, the dialogue is beyond boring, and there were absolutely no emotional hooks of any kind.

Image credit: Vanity Fair

And, because of all these sins, the film was entirely ruined despite it’s visually gorgeous aesthetic, outstanding costumes, special effects, and art design, and strong cast. I was even annoyed by the simple casting choice of Michelle Pfeiffer (whom I love) because the fact that she was in the film alone completely gave away crucial plot points. Argh!

At the end of it, I came out of the cinema feeling angry, not a feeling I like to have when emerging from a movie experience. As such, I would not recommend Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, go and see Frozen II instead.

Director Joachim Ronning, 2019

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Robert Lindsay, Harris Dickinson, Sam Riley, Chiwitel Ejiofor, Ed Skrein, Juno Temple, and Imelda Staunton