Review of "Maleficent"

"Maleficent" is really not your typical Disney movie. "Frozen" bucked the trend by being a film which attracted people of all age groups, had a runaway hit song, poked fun at some of Disney's typical developments in its past movies and reversed the trend of princesses always waiting for their princes to save them. In that sense, "Maleficent" was also very different from typical Disney movies because its protagonist is not a typical hero but rather one who can seen as both a hero and villain.

Instead of being a film meant purely for children, the message it tries to convey seems to be one which can be understood more by adults. Although I had the nagging feeling that this might be a kiddie movie before I watched it, I was pleasantly surprised at the end.

If you are interested to know how the story progresses, you can visit the Wikipedia page so I won't go into further details here. As for those who have not watched this movie yet, be warned that there will be spoilers below so you may wish to skip this review.

Angelina Jolie is awesome as Maleficent. In fact, if she had not taken up this role, it would have been difficult to imagine who might have played it as well as her. Her metamorphosis from a cheerful fairy to that of a dark fairy was due to the betrayal by the man she loved. According to Jolie in an interview, the significance of that scene where Maleficent had her wings cut off by Stefan was tantamount to rape. Of course, in a Disney film, it would have been impossible to convey that explicitly.

Due to the physical and emotional pain she suffered, that caused Maleficent to change into a dark fairy. However, she was not evil by nature thus her heart softened as she watched Aurora grow up and became drawn to the little girl she had cursed because of the misdeed by Aurora's father. There were multiple facades of Maleficent which made her more endearing to the audience and her actions more understandable instead of traditionally strict lines separating the good and evil in typical children's stories.

I also liked the twist where a mother's love was seen as "more true" than the spontaneous "love at first sight" typical in Disney stories. It made the story less predictable and provided a source of redemption for Maleficent who could save the girl she cursed.

Frankly speaking, the graphics in this movie were a tad darker and less colourful than what you usually see in Disney movies for children. That cannot be helped as Maleficent was portrayed as a dark heroine with lots of pain, anguish and hatred for most of the movie. Of course, when she finally overcame the dark past, things became better and the world suddenly became colourful again. I thought it was a great way to show that how people's perspectives of the world can change depending on their state of mind. If Maleficent had continued being a dark heroine, her world would still be dull-looking even though it was far from reality.

In conclusion, "Maleficent" is a film which exceeded my expectations in a good way and I would recommend it to anyone to give it a try in the cinemas.