Disney Delivers A Surprising New Story for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
On October 18th, Disney premiered it’s first live-action reboot sequel with Maleficent:Mistress of Evil. The movie continues to follow the story of Maleficent and Aurora and how their relationship was not quite as told before. Maleficent was one of Disney’s first attempts at these new live-action reboots they continue to release, but specifically chose to make the villain the protagonist instead of following the same story line of the classic Sleeping Beauty. Since Disney decided to add in these twists, the first film was very successful so it is no surprise they conjured up a story for a sequel. Now typically, I would want to give a spoiler-free review in case you haven’t had a chance to see the film, but in this case I have some points I need to make about the storyline so this review will have spoilers. You got that? Here is your SPOILER warning so come back later if you have not seen the film. I still highly recommend the film and enjoyed it, but there are just a few questions I would like to bring up. So let’s get into it.
Now if we rewind a little bit, we learned in Maleficent that the story we were told in Sleeping Beauty was not quite as it seems in that Maleficent wasn’t always filled with hate and actually fell in love with the boy who later became King Stephan. But of course since boys can be cruel and stupid, Stephan betrayed Maleficent for a chance to become king and cut off her wings to present to the current king. This was the turning point for Maleficent in that she no longer believed in love and turned cold. Well trust me Maleficent, we’ve all been there. This then later gives her a reason to place a curse on King Stephan’s baby, Aurora. However, during the movie Maleficent grew love for Aurora and became a mother figure towards her so she ends up breaking the curse with true love’s kiss. Seems like a happy ending, right? Well that didn’t stop Disney for thinking of another storyline.
For the sequel, we finally see the relationship between Aurora and Prince Phillip and he asked for her hand in marriage. Which before I continue, no shade, but I was a little disappointed in the casting choice for Prince Phillip or at least the styling. I always found Prince Phillip to be one of the cuter princes so seeing the actor with medium hair and a ponytail kind of disaapointed me. I know it probably makes more sense with the time period, but just personal preference for me. I thought the boy in the first film was cuter. Anyways, boys aside, Maleficent is not to thrilled when she learns of the engagment. Remember she still thinks true love doesn’t exist, at least not with stupid boys. However, Maleficent loves Aurora so she is willing to give things a chance and meet Phillip’s parents at their castle.
As you can imagine, things did not go smoothly, but hey does meeting the in-laws ever go that smoothly. This causes Maleficent to leave Aurora behind with Phillip and his family. Maleficent is injured when leaving the castle causing her to be saved from a similiar creature which helps her to discover she isn’t the only one of her kind. So throughout the movie, Aurora is trying to learn the lifestyle of her new. family while Maleficent understands the history of her kind. Then of course there is still conflict of trying to bring peace between the humans and the moors which is all Aurora and Phillip really want. I’m not going to go into the whole climax with you, but there was some huge questions raised in the ending I want to bring up.
If you have seen both movies, maybe you can answer my questions or might just be as confused as me. So one of the things revealed in the sequel is Prince Phillip’s mom uses the spindle of the spinning wheel to curse the King into a death like sleep. The spinning wheel still kept the curse from the first movie so all the queen had to do was stab the kind with the needle. However, this is the part that gets to me. Well two things actually. Firstly, where in the bloody hell did the queen get the spinning wheel? How did she of all people get possession of it? I mean she really must be obsessed in order to find it. Secondly, the King is able to be awaken from the curse because Maleficent destroys the needle and saves the day. So let me get this straight, Maleficent all of a sudden can just do a little magic, destory the spindle, and lift the curse. This is why this a problem to me. The whole time in the first movie, Maleficent struggled to lift the curse from Aurora and never tried finding the spinning wheel and destroying it. Maybe I need to rewatch the first one, but this new ending just seemed way to convenient for me.
Another question and point I want to bring up is a major spoiler, but I just had to bring it up. Unfortunately we almost see Maleficent die after seeing her new friend who saved her die in her arms. However, she is able to come back to life and appears from her ashes a giant raven type figure. So again two things. One, I sort of understood from the movie that after her friend died, he sort of became a part of her and their spirits sort of intertwined. This made me believe why she was able to come back to life. However, they didn’t really explain that or explain if her friend had certian powers allowing her to do that. I mean how did the two of them coming together really work? Secondly, why a raven? I figured she turn into a dragon, but instead we saw some bird like creature. I mean the wings makes sense for them to do that, but I guess I was trying to see more of the connections.
Lastly, there are some deaths in this movie that could make the audience feel a type of way so I won’t get into it. However, I will say that it was very satisfying for the death of the queen’s little sidekick. This woman was so twisted and weird and she reminded me of the woman obsessed with poison in Wonder Woman. Therefore her death which I’m pretty sure she died was honestly cool for me.
Overall, I give the movie a solid B+. Sequels aren’t always the easiest movies to accomplish and even though there were moments of predictability in the story line, there was always many twists and turns as well. There was some tears and shocks from me so overall I really enjoyed it and probably will purchase it for my family’s disney collection. However just like the first one, I don’t recommend parents showing their smaller children this movie. I mean hey do what you want, but these movies definitely have darker material than the average Disney flick.
Have you seen the Maleficent sequel yet? Did you enjoy the first one? What do you think of villains as protagonists? What is your favorite Disney Live-Action film so far? Let me know in the comments below and be sure to like and subscribe to get notified of new posts. Until next time my Bombshells, Bye!
