Maleficent

Hello fellow movie lovers!  I know it has been a while, but things are about to get way more consistent this summer so expect some heavier reading loads from yours truly!  Also, just a heads up, I am going to start reviewing anything released in the last year so I am not just limited to summer blockbusters.   Thanks for your patience and I cannot wait to explore more films!  Critiques and other comments are always welcome.  Now to the real business at hand…

So I saw Maleficent the other day with a group of friends.  As some of you have caught on, I am a HUGE Disney fan so I was pretty pumped to see Sleeping Beauty revitalized and rejuvenated.  However, I think my love for the classic stood in the way of truly enjoying the new take on the film.  I am still grappling with my thoughts and feelings so expect a lot of jumping around and probably some updates.

*And cue the spoilers*

Maleficent (Stromberg 2014) tells the story of one of the most infamous Disney villains of all time from a truly classic tale.  The film flaunts the classic Disney beauty with huge, saturated, Technicolor establishing shots and lots of tracking shots.  The film begins by following a young Maleficent as she explores the deeply entrenched hatred between humans and mythical creatures and finds a forbidden love in a human boy named Stefan (hint, hint for all you classic Disney fans).  The narrator explains that mythical creatures such as Maleficent are not plagued by negative human emotions or ambitions, but Maleficent understands that her love wants to better his position in life from a poor famer’s son.   Stefan has dreams of becoming king of his land so their forbidden visits become few and far between as she lets him socially advance.  Maleficent grows into a powerful fairy with magnificent wings.  Her great power makes her a defender of her land against the humans.  In the war on the magical creatures, the current king is fatally injured by Maleficent.  Maleficent fails to go unscathed as well as we learn iron burns fairies and as all the swords and armor of the soldiers is made of iron, this battle was a bit complicated for Maleficent.  However her wings provide strong gusts of wind that knock men over and eventually Maleficent claims victory.  The human king, furious and embarrassed by his undoing, tells his followers that whoever kills Maleficent will become his successor.  Stefan is among those followers and travels to the forest to warn Maleficent of the king’s plan.

As their love is rekindled, Stefan poisons Maleficent with a sleeping potion and in her sleep, he cuts off her wings to bring the king.  Maleficent wakes up the next morning sore, lame, and furious.  Without her wings and in extreme pain, Maleficent creates her iconic staff to help her walk.  Maleficent becomes consumed by her anger and thirst for revenge.  She entrusts the help of a raven (Diaval) who she uses as her new “wings.”  The raven flies around the kingdom and Maleficent turns her trusty friend into a human so he can communicate his findings and updates with the kingdom.  Naturally, when King Stefan is married and has an heir, Maleficent makes her infamous entrance.  Almost spoken word-for-word from the classic cartoon, Maleficent casts her curse of baby Aurora to prick her finger and fall into a deep sleep.  After humiliating the king by asking him to beg for the curse to be lifted, Maleficent allows the curse to have a loophole.  She creates the solution of true love’s kiss that will wake the princess–a notion that neither Maleficent nor King Stefan believe in and thus an impossible remedy.  After their romance turned into bitter hatred, both are skeptic of true love’s kiss as it was said they shared one (and look where it has gotten them so far).  Thus King Stefan becomes obsessed with burning all the spinning wheels and finding Maleficent to destroy her.

Meanwhile, the three fairies/pixies (I’ll explain later) are charged with taking the princess into the woods to raise her, ignorant of the curse and her heritage.  Seemingly the same day, Maleficent easily finds the child and watches over her as she grows.  When the child is getting close to 16, Maleficent is discovered by Aurora who has seen Maleficent’s shadow following her throughout her whole life.  Reluctantly, Maleficent reveals herself and Aurora mistakes her for a fairy godmother.  Taken aback, Maleficent fails to deny the role and is eventually won over by Aurora as Maleficent shows her all the beauties of the forest.  The two form a relationship and Maleficent realizes she regrets the curse.  She attempts to lift it, but her own thoroughness from years ago stops her as “no power on earth” can keep Aurora from her fate.  Aurora, still ignorant of the curse, decides she will run away from her three guardians and will live with Maleficent in the woods.  She is interrupted in preparing for the discussion by Prince Phillip, whom she directs towards King Stefan’s castle.  Diaval remarks that perhaps Phillip could be Maleficent’s answer to the curse.

The three fairies beat Aurora to breaking news and tell her all about her princess status and the curse put on by an evil fairy.  Aurora figures out the plot and is angered at Maleficent.  Aurora is taken back to King Stefan’s castle, but Maleficent knows Aurora’s inevitable fate.  Desperate, she thus kidnaps Phillip and races to the castle in hopes to reach Aurora before the curse is enacted.  However, Aurora goes into a trance and pricks her finger on the spindle and falls into her deep sleep.  Maleficent brings Phillip to the castle and although he kisses Aurora, it is to no avail and Aurora is not woken.  Maleficent, teary-eyed, apologizes to Aurora’s cursed self and kisses her forehead.  Luckily, Maleficent’s love for Aurora acts as true love’s kiss and breaks the curse.

The two then decide to break out of the castle, but King Stefan orders his troops to attack and kill Maleficent.  Burned by the surrounding armor of the troops attacking, Maleficent weakly turns Diaval into a fire-breathing dragon in order to protect her.  After helplessly watching her fairy godmother struggle, Aurora decides to run around the castle in search of help and stumbles on Maleficent’s wings which Stefan has kept in a glass case.  She releases them and they fly triumphantly to their master and Maleficent saves herself and her raven-friend and in a struggle with King Stefan, kills him when he tries to drag her off of a cliff.

Aurora and Maleficent retreat into the woods where Aurora is crowned queen of the forest and the narrator reveals herself to be an older Aurora.

So long story short I really enjoyed the film but I am not in love with it.  I have not finalized my feelings on it, but I would definitely like to see it again with a more open mind and see if that changes anything.  Like I said, my mind has yet to be made up either way, but I’ll dive into my thoughts and then will delve more into the women’s roles that we see in the film.

I’m going to begin with some positive, technical elements.  This is after only one viewing, so forgive my memory.  As I mentioned earlier, the landscapes and worlds that Disney creates are absolutely spectacularly gorgeous.  I saw the film in IMAX 3D and it was mind blowing.  The first person shots of Maleficent flying are impeccable and the special effects are pretty great.  My favorites are Maleficent’s eyes that glitter like they are metallic and all of the uses of her magic.  Whether for good, evil, or fun, they were well portrayed.

Also I would like to say that this is my all time favorite role that I have ever seen Angelina Jolie play.  She is innocent and evil and scorned and funny and mischievous and everything that a good Maleficent should be.  Her nickname “Beasty” given to Aurora is always executed with the exact proper emotion and turns from a term of disgust, to one of endearment.  Her humor is always perfectly timed and she brought life to the villain of Maleficent.  Her comedic moments when telling Aurora she hates her or her shock at being called a fairy godmother are perfect.  I also cannot ignore the hype of her epic cheek bone make up.  Yes, it is as brilliant as it looks in all the previews.

Now onto my confusions and hesitations which all pretty much stemmed from my love for the classic Sleeping Beauty made by Disney long ago.  Walt Disney has a very special place in my heart as one of my personal heroes and Sleeping Beauty was the last princess he worked on during his life time.  That being said, the amount of time, effort, and money he put into the original is awe worthy.  It is said that you can stop the movie at any time and frame that still to hang on your wall because it is guaranteed to be beautiful.  All the backgrounds were hand drawn and the talented voices who brought the characters to life are still renowned for their talent.  So while a lot of people complain that Sleeping Beauty is boring or isn’t accurate of modern women, the film was made in the 1950s with stereotypical gender roles that were laid out centuries beforehand.  Not really Disney’s fault as they were just trying to bring the fairytale to life.  There wasn’t as much room for experimentation as there is today.  Also, the film is just absolutely beautiful and while someone could be bored stiff by the story, they could also be mesmerized by the glamour of it all.

With all that in mind, I was sort of terrified for this film.  Maleficent is the go-to, classic, evil Disney villain.  I never want to like her.  I love her for being a villain, but I was hesitant to be persuaded that she is really just misunderstood.  She’s evil and she’s darn good at it and that’s great.  Own it.  I was also hesitant with other storylines such as Wicked that have revisited fairytales to fill in gaps.  A nice idea and by the success of Wicked, obviously one that people are eating up.  However, can that be done too much?  Is this film going to follow any of the classic storylines?  They released that haunting rendition of “Once Upon a Dream” by Lana Del Rey so I was cautiously optimistic.

Nevertheless, if you are going to see Maleficent as a companion movie to Sleeping Beauty…just stop.  As one of my good friends who went with me said, you cannot look at it in that light or you ruin it.  Maleficent perverts all the “good” characters like King Stefan and the three good fairies into bumbling, vain idiots.  King Stefan is selfish and corrupt.  He becomes so consumed by his thirst for revenge on Maleficent that his wife dies alone because Stefan is too busy plotting.  The three good fairies (who all sport weird names), are some of the most ridiculous and idiotic characters in the world and I honestly do not know how it is realistic Aurora made it to 16 with those three when they cannot even seem to make it through one day by themselves.   The animation with them was a little weird too.  They are animated in their pixie form, but live action people in their human forms.

The distinction I mentioned earlier between pixies and fairies was also a little confusing.  In the retellings, the fairies are called, “The Three Good Fairies” and Maleficent is a bad fairy.  However, I guess to reconcile their visual differences, the three fairies are demoted to pixies and the rendition of fairies in the film is people with horns and bird wings.

There are more things I could mention, like the differences in the casting of the curse, the absence of Aurora’s alias “Briar Rose,” the transitions between only two locations (where was Aurora’s cottage in the woods anyway?!), and a longing for more exposure of Maleficent’s Forbidden Mountain castle, etc.  that I could go into but I will digress.  Perhaps they will come up later.  All in all, I think I was too attached to the cartoon to see Maleficent for what it was.

Onto the actual critique of women.  We are only met with about four women in the film.  The fairies (who I am counting as one collective woman presence), Stefan’s queen, Maleficent, and Aurora.  The fairies, like I mentioned before, are idiotic and consistently the victims of Maleficent’s teasing and pranks.  They are literally and figuratively powerless without their magic (and with it they were not doing so great so that is saying something).  They are constantly bickering and struggling to do basic chores around the house.  Overall, they are objects for comedic relief and toys for Maleficent’s amusement.

Stefan’s queen was such a treat for me.  So the classic cartoon is perhaps most known for its lack of dialogue by seemingly important characters (Aurora herself only has 18 lines throughout the film excluding songs).    So I am pretty sure the queen only has one line in the whole film which was never a big deal because who cares?  She is only there to conceive the child and to complete the nuclear family when Aurora returns home (see Tangled–it still happens nowadays).  However, during the scene where Maleficent curses baby Aurora, the dialogue was almost spot on.  Then they added a bunch of dialogue of the queen’s that seems out of place.  She seems mad and uncomfortable at Maleficent which is totally valid, but then the next time we hear about her (as we never see her again) she is dying and her husband refuses to see her because he is obsessed with finding another woman (Maleficent).  What was the point of her putting up such a fight only to die off?  She fails to be a great role model in my eyes too as she was fickle and a bit annoying.

Maleficent is the one I am really struggling with in regards to what she communicates as a modern woman.  She is powerful and strong in battles and is kind to the inhabitants of her forest.  She seems pretty noble.  After she is hurt by Stefan however, she becomes consumed by rage and revenge.  Her powers get stronger and scarier.  How are we to interpret her burst of power that is spurred by the wrong doing of man?  Is the strength of such a woman still valid if it is brought out by the scorn of man?  Like I mentioned earlier, I loved Angelina Jolie’s portrayal of Maleficent.  She nailed the evilness and creepy power of being a villain, but I also trusted and believed her pain.  I think Maleficent’s eventual atonement of her curse shows that her camaraderie with another female is stronger and truer to her character than the harm caused by man.  That seems like a good message.  At the same time, Maleficent finds her place in the maternal landscape of caring for Aurora, so is she really subjecting herself to stereotypical women’s roles?  She seems like she plays either the mother or the scorned woman (which I suppose is preferable to the mother-whore binary we usually see in women).  At least Maleficent was proactive with her pain and found her true self once her male counterpart was vanquished.

Aurora is another tricky one as we inevitably get into her curse.  Maleficent reiterates that she will be beautiful and beloved by all who know her.  So was Maleficent put under her own curse and that is why she cares so much for Aurora?  Because everyone must?  Would she have cared so much if Aurora was not pretty?  Or if that “beloved by all” part was not existent?  Aurora is naïve but kind and independent throughout the film.  She still plays her role pretty true to the original which was sort of refreshing.  Her sleeping curse failed to be much of a curse after all as much as it was a power nap, but she finds comfort in her female companionship with Maleficent as well.  This companionship proves to be so strong between the two women, that Aurora seems to show no grievances over the death of her father.

The “true love’s kiss” scene was an expectation but not in the way that I thought.  When Phillip’s kiss failed to work, it was sort of great.  With a nod to Frozen, Phillip is reluctant to kiss Aurora because while he likes her, he admits they just met so there is no way he could already love her.  Maleficent’s kiss was very similar to the maternal love seen in Disney”s Once Upon a Time television series at the end of season one.  As an avid watcher of Once, after Phillip’s kiss failed, I expected Maleficent’s to work so I was not too surprised.  Personally, I was kind of rooting for Diaval as Aurora’s true love…but we never really find out who is Aurora’s true love is other than Maleficent. 

All in all, I was in a romantic delusion regarding the classic fairytale from my childhood.  While I am not totally sold on the differences presented of the tale and its characters, I loved that Maleficent was given a backstory and some justification for her evil deeds.  It was creative and definitely worth giving a try.  Like I said, I am still struggling to reach some conclusions myself, but overall it was a film worth seeing.