Maleficent (2014)

Disney, You Killing Me!

I have waited for this movie since I first saw the teaser trailer, Angelina Jolie as the deliciously Evil Maleficent, with snippets of her relishing the channeling of the sinister, with her hauntingly taunting in a singing voice that cast a spell (and yes I know it's actually Lana Del Rey) - like magic, real movie magic. The promise was all there...

For those who don't know, Maleficent revisits the classic tale and piece of Disney animated history, 1959's Sleeping Beauty. But this time it's to be told from the viewpoint of the primary antagonist, the epitome of evil, Maleficent. The first of Disney's scheduled classics re-imagined for a new generation, retold live action, CGI spectacles...

I've been waiting with bated breath, to revel in the spectacle that was going to reawaken my faith in Disney.

Disney you break my heart...

Maybe the first clue should have been the casting of Elle Fanning? Not a fan of the Fanning girls, I don't get it, too sweet, and that is exactly one of the biggest faults of the movie... Too Damn Sweet, Toothache sweet! Damn You Disney! I just don't think that Elle Fanning is the right sort of Beauty for the role...

Now Angelina Jolie, there's a piece of genius casting, this is a role for which she was born to play, from the first teaser it was clear that Angelina was Maleficent, having successfully breathed life into a cartoon character with but the slightest of looks and a subtlest of shifts in tone of delivery, on whose shoulders the future of Disney (and yes, I know that this blog does not really know what the future of Disney actually is) was safely shouldered (in my opinion, in so far as bringing classic fairytales to life is concerned, Phew!). And she revels and delights in it, it's a skill you see... to inhabit and enchant... Me... And Angelina Jolie does that very well (one of my favourites, very scared of the threat of retirement I say).

Sadly Disney fails her here, the script faulters and the story is shredded in the process, with the retelling becoming a hybrid abomination that waters down a performance which was well on the way to being a classic. It should have been as deliciously evil as Charlize Theron in Snow White and The Huntsman, Hell that horror was better than this dumbed down retelling, even Julia Roberts Schlock turn in her Snow White version embraced the dark side better. You should have stuck with the source material Disney, expanded on those themes, your own or the original tales, there was even space for the backstory and redemption! Disney, you are making me want to drop spoilers left, right and center in the calling out!!!

As I have always said previously, Pixar for me was the first sadness I ever encountered from Disney, the Hannah Montana and High School Musical era terrified me to my core, and this Disney live action classic reimagining period ahead might just make me cry.

Disney You Suck! Angelina Jolie You Rocked every frame of film you had to play with! I don't want to write anymore, I want to go to bed and dream this away... Oh what could have been!

nuff said...