Yeah, Cinderella got a remake, and it was fine. Beauty and the Beast got its due, and it was pretty, entertaining, and starred Emma Watson. But both were partly, or mostly, focused on an elusive fella called a prince. None retell the original folktale with a spin quite like Maleficent, and the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, takes it even a step further with a story that is mostly about powerful women. Directed by Joachim Rønning and by Linda Woolverton, was released Oct. 18 and has already created somewhat of a buzz. Vulture’s Angelica Jade Bastién calls the movie “a haphazard mess on nearly every level, only able to work in fits and starts.” But, Forbes reviewer Mark Hughes says the film “is indeed superior to its predecessor and builds upon the previous themes…” With the reviews decidedly making up a mixed bag, I think it’s important to give you a quick overview of the first installment to explain why I think the second worked so splendidly.
Maleficent, directed by Robert Stromberg and written by Woolverton, begins the story before the beginning, showing Angelina Jolie as the dark fairy before she went dark and giving our villain a strain of softness you’d never expect. The rest of the movie is just as endearing and delightful when she forms a motherly relationship with young Aurora.
Of course, the conflict comes eventually, in the form of regret. Maleficent begins to regret putting a curse on Aurora (Elle Fanning) to punish her father for his sins and realizes it’s not fair to blame her for something that happened before she was born. But even after she breaks the curse, the crazed king and the kingdom he turned against her raises an army. But, bing bang boom, Maleficent prevails and Aurora comes to live with her in the Moors with a maybe prince on the horizon. We get an inkling that the prince might come back into the picture, but he was never really that important in the first place, and it’s true that it was Maleficent’s kiss that woke Aurora.
But anyways, that’s just the first movie recapped. Mistress of Evil operates basically around the same general premise. It begins 5 years later with the inciting incident of Prince Phillip’s (Harris Dickinson) proposal to Aurora. Since the end of the last film, Aurora has been happily living with Maleficent as Queen of the Moors and supposedly growing a relationship with Prince Phillip. *SPOILER ALERT* She accepts the proposal, and Maleficent’s crow Diaval (Sam Riley) runs off to tell her. Our first glimpse of Maleficent portrays a lighter version of her, looking out over her Moors and dressed in olive green and earthy tones instead of black. But once she finds out that Prince Phillip has proposed to her daughter, it doesn’t take long for her to go dark.
From then on, trouble abounds. Enough that I was so nervous during parts of the movie that I couldn’t look. Prince Phillip’s mother, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer) has a vendetta against Maleficent and the Moors and secretly pricks her husband whilst playing off of Maleficent’s temper, making it seem like her doing, which turn Aurora and Prince Phillip against her. On her way flying haughtily through the castle windows, Ingrith’s minion hits her with an iron ball, (her kryptonite) and she goes down only to be saved by a mysterious dark fairy just like her.
This is when Maleficent discovers the Dark Faye tribe, a community of fairies just like her hiding from the humans on a remote island. But there is still a war to come, a chilling confrontation between two fiery women determined to destroy the other. My one critique of the first installment of Maleficent was that it all seemed a little bit too easy—waking the princess, Maleficent getting her wings back, defeating the frenzied king. But in Mistress of Evil, it was quite the opposite, and often difficult to see how Maleficent might escape the many sticky situations she’s put in.
Yet, the tension was a welcome surprise and the push and pull between the dark resilience of Maleficent and determined hatred of Queen Ingrith was thrilling to watch. And Aurora, with her personal struggle of constantly being stuck between the human kingdom and the Moors and her mother enrich an already woman-filled movie. The three make up a trio of strong-willed characters who create an intricate plot just by butting heads with each other.
There’s not one male character who isn’t insignificantly secondary. It’s clear they’re there because they kind of have to be, and it’s expectedly refreshing to see in the retelling of a Disney folktale. King Phillip gets probably 20 minutes of screentime in total, the king is asleep for almost all of the film, and the men Faye fairies serve to support, motivate, and force Maleficent to confront her inner war between fighting and peace with the humans. Davial is probably the male character that gets the most screen time, and he’s Maleficent’s servant. I can’t think of a better fairytale movie to show young girls how to be their own hero (or villain).
Even if you’re not a 10 year old girl with a love for all things sleeping beauty, there’s an abundance of witty moments, and the CGI really is quite remarkable. While the characters may not be the most original or developed, don’t forget it’s a movie made for a younger audience. The fact that it still managed to entertain and delight me and the friends I brought along is saying something I think.