Say what you will about the movie Maleficent – it was clumsily written and murkily photographed, that’s for sure – but it’s one of the most daring motion pictures Disney has put out in a very long time. The film takes one of the studio’s most iconic villains and retcons her into a tragic antihero, whose story has a lot more in common with Abel Ferrara’s Ms. 45 than you would ever expect from a so-called “family” film. And of course, Angelina Jolie was pitch perfect casting for the title role, giving a performance that could easily be described as “maglificent.”
Maleficent wasn’t a great film but at least it earned bonus points for audacity. The sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, could have used some extra credit. It’s a ridiculously written, emotionally insincere motion picture, and although Angelina Jolie is as excellent as ever, the film has no idea what to do with her. She practically sits half the movie out, and for no good reason other than the story would probably end if she felt just a little more motivated.
It’s been five years since the events of Maleficent, and after what may very well be the longest courtship in Disney movie history, Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson) has finally asked Queen Aurora (Elle Fanning) to marry him. It’s a union that will unite their two kingdoms, which have been on the brink of war for years. And both of their mothers – Maleficent and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer) – are totally cheesed off about it.
Maleficent and Ingrith have a lot in common. They’re both impeccable dressers and neither can hide their scorn. But whereas Maleficent tries to be polite for the sake of her goddaughter, Ingrith schemes to frame Maleficent for cursing the king, which sets a chain of events into motion that lead to war, attempted genocide and – naturally – the most absurd pipe organ performance in movie history.
The good news is that Maleficent: Mistress of Evil has a new director who, if nothing else, actually wants the audience to see what’s going on. Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales) kicks the brightness up a notch compared to the dimly lit original, and presents a vivid world of weird magical monsters and elaborate costumes and memorable locales. When Maleficent finds herself in a gigantic bird’s nest, sneaking through hallways built out of giant threaded twigs, you’ll know that production designer Patrick Tatopoulous (Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice) went above and beyond.
What’s more, Jolie and Pfeiffer are both excellent scene-stealers. An early sequence where they’re just sitting across a dinner table from one another, trading snide barbs before levitating the cat and stabbing the king, is the highlight of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. But then the plot kicks in and everybody has to act like they forgot everything they learned in the previous installment, just so this new story can move forward.
Maleficent gets framed for the king’s magical coma, and Aurora – despite already learning to trust Maleficent with her life – immediately blames her godmother, who storms out and gets shot by the Queen’s righthand assassin Gerta (Jenn Murray). Maleficent then gets rescued by more flying faery folk, led by Conali (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who takes her to their hidden kingdom and proceeds to unload exposition like a dump truck. Maleficent is part of a forgotten species of fairy, they’re debating going to war with Queen Ingrith, and none of this information will be relevant until the third act (if then) so it all just feels like padding.
Angelina Jolie doesn’t have much to do in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. She doesn’t even have all that much dialogue. Elle Fanning could have held the movie aloft but she spends most of the film being easily manipulated, while Harris Dickinson makes almost no impression whatsoever as her fiancé. It’s a good thing Pfeiffer is thoroughly committed to Mistress of Evil, and gets enough screen time to actually do something with it, because for a long time this movie only has a pulse because she’s eating her heart out.
As for the story, it’s a bland build-up to an inevitable battle climax, where lots of CGI stuff collides with other CGI stuff, and none of it makes much of an impact. Even the harshest scene in the movie – a disturbing sequence set in a church that’s been converted into a gas chamber – quickly turns absurdist, when it turns out the only way to kill the villain’s victims is to totally rock out on a pipe organ. Of course, only one of the organ keys actually releases the gas, and the villain could easily and quickly murder everybody by spamming it, but apparently they just love playing the pipe organ too much to take lazy (read: competent) shortcuts.
Meanwhile, there’s a gigantic revelation that pretty much ruins the whole ending of the original Maleficent, and there’s a moment of catastrophic tonal whiplash when the movie suddenly shifts gears from a serious allegory for war, racism and genocide, into a cheesy Hallmark romance. Don’t let the fact that everyone in the movie either died or knows someone who literally just did get in the way of your feel good-feels, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Why make sense when you can make nonsense instead?
Then again, why go see Maleficent: Mistress of Evil? The movie has some spectacle but only in service of a half-baked storyline, which makes no sense even on the surface, and does a massive disservice to the characters. You’ll get more entertainment value out of perusing the new Maleficent merchandise at Hot Topic, and you’ll find more depth by plumbing the overstock bins full of unsold original Maleficent t-shirts.
