Disney has done a wonderful job in bringing some of their animated classics to life with live-action remakes. A couple of these movies, rather than going for a remake serve as a reimagining and that is what Maleficent is best described as.
How to Stream or Download Maleficent
The movie can be streamed or it can be downloaded from iTunes. To start your download or stream, click on the button below the review. And you like Disney fantasy movies, be sure to also check out Beauty and the Beast or The Nutcracker and the Four Realms.
The Film Review
This is actually a prequel and offers a different take on a character that for decades we have all just cast aside as a heartless villain. The movie had been in the planning stages since around 2010 when Tim Burton was tied to the production. Right from the get-go, Angelina Jolie wanted this role as she was such a fan of Sleeping Beauty when she was a kid.
Angelina Jolie absolutely knocks this one out of the park. I would go as far as to say that you could say her role as Maleficent is one of the defining roles of her career. She gave it her all and as a result, her portrayal of Maleficent makes you feel sadness for her at the same time though, you can also see the vengeance and dare I say, the evil that she is capable of.
The story is actually quite sad. Maleficent is a fairy who is full of love and wants to protect the Moors where she lives. She meets and falls in love with a human boy called, Stefan. Stefan though turns his back on Maleficent as they get older in a very selfish way.
King Henry tries to take the Moors for himself, but gets his butt well and truly handed to him by Maleficent. In his rage, he says that whoever kills her will become get his daughters hand. Stefan decides that he can do this and sets out to kill her. He cannot do it, but he does something even worse, he cuts off her wings and takes them back to the king.
This scene for a Disney movie is really, really brutal and Angelia Jolie does a tremendous job of showing not just that she is scared. It is more than that, you can tell that she feels the ultimate betrayal at the hands of someone she thought she knew so well. It is a very powerful scene and one of the stand-out parts of the movie for me.
This is the catalyst for her becoming the Maleficent that we know, love and fear from Sleeping Beauty. From here things start to take a bit of a familiar turn and if you have seen Sleeping Beauty (who hasn’t) you will get a real kick out of the way the story progresses. With that being said though, I feel that Maleficent does not rely too much on what is expected and you still get some excellent surprises.
Maleficent is an excellent movie and it is very clever the way that Disney managed to shed new light on a character that we all felt we had figured out. It is a movie that is fun, sad and exciting. It really does take you on an emotional roller coaster and it is one of the better live action remake style movies they have done in my opinion.
