Maleficent: Mistress of Evil a substandard sequel to the first box office smash
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is shoddily made and a bore to endure. While Angelina Jolie’s presence as the title character was inspired the first time around, it feels absolutely contractual on the second lap.
Entertainment
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In 2014, Maleficent and its unusual take on the Sleeping Beauty legend gave Angelina Jolie one of the biggest hits of her career.
That movie’s billion-plus box-office gross turns out to be the only reason the substandard sequel Mistress of Evil exists.
Jolie’s presence as the title character was inspired the first time around, but feels absolutely contractual on this second lap of the Maleficent fairytale universe.
In fact, the star of the show goes AWOL for massive chunks of the movie, leaving dreary Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) to try and pick up the slack.
The poor love just isn’t up to it, even though it is her wedding to a princely dreamboat that draws Maleficent out of retirement, triggering a war between humans and fairies.
Those with functioning memories should recall that Maleficent ended the first movie redeemed from a life of evil to become widely renowned as one of the nice ones forevermore.
The new movie puts paid to that notion — kind of — with a rather ungainly opening explainer, which even the narrator doesn’t really seem all that keen to sell to us.
Without us truly believing Maleficent has crossed back to the dark side (or is at least considering it) the new movie just doesn’t stand a chance of resonating with any one who really loved the original’s intriguing storyline.
Michelle Pfeiffer joins the cast of regulars as Aurora’s menacing mother-in-law-to-be.
Her Queen Ingrith is a woman with sinister plans for a complete fairy genocide that are in quite poor taste for a PG-rated children’s picture.
A different actor plays her son Prince Phillip this time around, but in all honesty, you won’t notice the difference.
All storytelling roads lead to an incomprehensible Game of Thrones-lite battle in the final act that is either very poorly staged, or terribly edited. It is impossible to tell.
Shoddily made and a bore to endure, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil scores a double rarely (if ever) racked up by a Disney production.
MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL (PG)
Director: Joachim Ronning (Kon-Tiki)
Starring: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Sam Reilly, Harris Dickinson.
Rating : *1/2
A Jolie old mess
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