Hey there guys its me here again with yet another brand new review! Today we will be reviewing Maleficent Mistress of Evil, the sequel to the surprise 2014 smash hit based off of one of Disney’s most iconic villains. Now personally I was not a huge fan of the original film as it was just pretty forgettable, and didn’t really do the character justice. Sure it had some okay effects, and Angelina Jolie was great as the title character but it’s story was just nonexistent for a good majority of the runtime, and there were certain story choices I wasn’t very big on (though I can’t say they frustrated me as much as others). So when a sequel was announces I thought this would be yet another Alice Through the Looking Glass and the marketing wasn’t very convincing me that this would be any better, which didn’t really help matters. But after seeing the film is I can say that while I don’t know if its all that great, it certainly is a hell of a lot more interesting than the first. Why’s that? Well let’s find out!
Taking 5 years after what transpired in the original, we are told through narration that Aurora has been Queen of the Moors with Maleficent as its guardian. However she is now being deemed a villain by the neighboring kingdom, Ulstead, which is the home of Aurora’s lover interest, Prince Phillip who also proposes to Aurora much to the chagrin of the winged fairy. Things keep getting worst for her as she, and Aurora are both invited by Phillip’s parents, King John, and Queen Ingrith, to a dinner as the king wants more than anything to make peace with the creatures of the Moor. His wife on the other hand has more sinister plans in mind though, as what starts out as an awkward family dinner turns into a heated debate which then leads to Maleficent seemingly cursing the King and attempt an escape which also backfires when she gets shot by a crossbow arrow and falls into the water. However she is then saved by another one of her species named Conall who takes to where the last of their kind reside and are debating on whether to attack the humans or finally make peace with them. But as Maleficent goes on to learn more about where she came from, Queen Ingrith has a plan that could potentially threaten the existence of both humans, and fairies alike (with Aurora involved as well). Can the Queen be stopped and will Maleficent’s, and Aurora’s relationship be the same?
Not going to lie, the first act of the movie is actually pretty good! I felt it did a good job of setting up the new status quo where (slight spoilers) people still believe in Maleficent being a villain thanks to her killing King Stefan in the last movie and the story of how she saved Aurora being twisted into something evil (which I guess can be look at as a slight commentary on how people can twist the truth into something it’s not), and it kind of followed the path of similar sequels that kind of question the super mega happy happily ever after ending which is something that’s always interested me. The drama was also mostly compelling with there being a lot of xenophobic undertones throughout with how the humans treat, and think of the mystical creatures. Most of the problems stem from the second act of the flick however where it sort of meander at times when it feels like the writers didn’t know what to do at times which is weirdly enough a problem that I had with the original. It also got a little messy at times due to there being so many things going on with an abundance of subplots, and long scenes of exposition concerning the home-world of the Dark Faes, and their origins which was pretty cool world building I’ll admit. However unlike the first one it actually feels like something is happening and the plot is moving forward and the proceedings were a hell of a lot more interesting and I appreciated its willingness to go all out in terms of its bonkers fantasy tone. It’s also fortunate that the third act becomes more focused as it suddenly becomes a big scaled fantasy battle not dissimilar to Aquaman, Lord of the Rings (Okay not that great but still pretty enjoyable) and it was a really fun climax with a really high body count that makes the film earn its PG rating with the ending wrapping everything up in a satisfying manner. So while it shares similar narrative issues with its predecessor and admittedly there’s nothing too spectacular with the story, I’d still take this one because I just found myself more invested in what was going on (and the often bonkers tone of the proceedings) instead of waiting for something interesting to happen.
One thing I will give the first Maleficent credit is that at least it’s CGI was okay, and there were some of creative creature designs that I did like. The problem was that most of the time, visually it just looked so drab, and grey that it was not very pretty to look at (though it admittedly did match the dour tone of certain scenes). Here however there’s plenty of bright colors filling up the screen with plenty of cool looking creature designs (there’s this one that looked like a hedgehog who was easily a stand out and had some good laughs) and an appropriately big fantastical sense of scale all of which is declared right out of the gate with a sweeping sequence done in one take that thrusts us back into this world. It makes for some pleasant eye candy and makes the film just more pleasant to look at. We are also introduced to the species of the Dark Fae which also makes for some more visually inventive stuff as we see the different locales they live in and their different designs. It almost reminds me of Avatar in some ways and it’s a cool world building element. I also got to hand it to the make up team for how they were able to bring Maleficent to life since it is very well done. And like I said before the final battle is a lot of fun reminds me of many other big scaled fantasy final battles (just like Avatar funny enough). Even if it wasn’t my biggest gripe with the original, I’m glad to see that at least that technically things worked better.
Another redeeming element of the original is of course Angelina Jolie as the title character A she was perfectly cast for the role and that once again remains the case here. However this time she isn’t quite as prominent as you’d expect as she is sidelined for a good sized chunk of the movie acting as more of an observer of everything going on around her than anything else (despite the film delving deep into her past). That was a bit of a let down since she’s literally the star of this franchise, but she does get some moments to shine especially in her interactions with Queen Ingrith played by Michelle Pfiefer who is clearly having a ton of fun hamming it up as the big bad and is a big improvement over King Stefan from the last film as this character is a lot more interesting and not as needlessly over the top (though that was mainly due to Sharlto Copley’s performance). Weirdly enough though even if Maleficent is sidelined the returning characters from last time are even better here. Elle Fanning is much better here then she was before and Aurora does go through an arc as she faces conflicts concerning whether Maleficent is truly supportive of her or not. Same goes for Prince Phillip played pretty well by Harris Dickinson, who is an actual character this time around (he was barely one in the first), and even Sam Riley as Diaval has some fun moments and the three fairies aren’t as annoying. Then there’s the Dark Fae where the only ones that actually do anything of importance are Chiwetel Ejiofor as the benevolent Conall, and Ed Skrein as the war ready, Borra. Both start out with potential to be interesting characters with clashing ideologies, but the former mostly just spouts out exposition and serves as a potential love interest for Maleficent and the latter doesn’t get a lot of screen time save for the big action climax. Still both actors do what they can to elevate their material (Ejiofor once again brings much needed gravitas to the role). I also want to mention Warwick Davis making a welcome appearance as a pixie working for the Queen (wearing some excellent makeup), and Jenn Murray as the Queen’s right hand lady who is just so campy that she is just a lot of fun to watch (in particular one dark musical sequence). Even if the movie’s name sake didn’t do as much, at the very least everyone else weren’t resting on their laurels either.
I don’t know if is a “good” movie, but it certainly was an entertaining watch for the majority of the run-time. Maleficent Mistress of Evil has similar problems to the first in that it drags in the second act, while also creating new problems like a reliance on exposition, and a lack of Angelina Jolie as the title character. Yet it ends up being so much more enjoyable thanks to a solid first, and third act, interesting world building, very well done visuals, an important message, an actual plot, and a much better ensemble cast making for a superior product. While I don’t think this one is going to convince haters of the original and I’m don’t think these films are very good representations of the character, I still appreciate that Disney decided to go all out with this one and produce a bonkers fantasy flick and on its own terms it works quite well as that. Warts and all I’d rather re imaginings like this that actually try to be their own things than the same story just with a new coat of paint.
Rating: B-
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