Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Movie Review
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a 2019 fantasy film directed by Joachim Ronning and starring Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning and Michelle Pfeiffer. It’s a mess of a film.
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“You’ve spent years caring for a human.
Now it’s time to care for your own“
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It follows the upcoming wedding of Aurora’s, but Maleficent and Queen Ingrith get into an argument, and a whole war between the two nations is set into motion. Needless to say, this entire conflict is artificially created with the two sides not talking properly, and it all felt too much based on misunderstanding and coincidence. That theme at the end of history books telling a different story than what truly happened was very interesting, but they did not explore it all that much unfortunately.
The standard fantasy trope of two battling nations fighting one another and managing to find common ground is handled okay here, but again it offers nothing new. I personally found most of the movie quite entertaining, that is after I made myself forget that this is a Maleficent movie. Watching it as just another fantasy, it’s much better, but still it’s a mediocre movie that is way too messily executed, and overwhelming in its war spectacle in the third act.
Maleficent got a much reduced role this time around while Angelina Jolie also delivered such a mediocre performance, much weaker than before. It doesn’t help that the entire mythos of the character is even more scarred in this sequel. There is nothing worse you can do to an original creation than making her entirely unauthentic by giving her an entire species of same-looking creatures such as herself. That was a terrible choice that did not pay off at all as all of those actors, especially Chiwetel Ejiofor were wasted in their mediocre roles.
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Elle Fanning is fine as Aurora, but her role is not all that great, though she did get some good moments here and there. Phillip is as bland as he can be, and the fairies are once again horribly mistreated. One of the trio even died which was another terrible choice in my opinion.
Whom I did like a lot is Queen Ingrith. Yes, Michelle Pfeiffer killed it in this wonderfully evil role. She was born to play evil, strong women as evidenced by ‘Stardust’ before, and now she does not get to have any powers, but she does get to be very manipulative, cold-blooded and such an entertaining, villainous ruler who very easily steals the show from everyone else.
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil does could refer to her as Maleficent herself is again not evil at all. Her relationship with Aurora provides some emotional moments for sure, but the Moors and the Dark Fae are both very underdeveloped. The dialogue is weak, the humor is non-existent and the action is overwhelming. The script is particularly messy as the writing can be quite bad in some scenes. However, the movie offers terrific VFX, a lot of great imagery and a strong fairy tale feel to it. It looks great, and it can be both fun and epic in some parts, which is why I find it to be much better than its very bad predecessor, but still it’s not good enough for a pass.
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Maleficent: Mistress of Evil does look great owing to colorful special effects. The movie is very entertaining in some parts, and it does provide fairy tale magic at times. Michelle Pfeiffer’s villain is the highlight for sure. But, all the other characters are much weaker including Maleficent who is now not even unique anymore. The action is overwhelming, the lack of humor is troubling and the script is a giant mess. Consequently, it’s an evident improvement upon its predecessor, but it’s still not a good film.
