WHAT’S IT ABOUT
“Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” is a fantasy adventure that picks up several years after “Maleficent,” in which audiences learned of the events that hardened the heart of Disney’s most notorious villain and drove her to curse a baby, Princess Aurora. The film continues to explore the complex relationship between the horned fairy and the soon to be Queen as they form new alliances and face new adversaries in their struggle to protect the moors and the magical creatures that reside within. The film is directed by Joachim Rønning from a story by Linda Woolverton and a screenplay by Linda Woolverton and Micah Fitzerman-Blue & Noah Harpster, the film is produced by Joe Roth, Angelina Jolie, and Duncan Henderson with Matt Smith, Jeff Kirschenbaum, and Michael Vieira serving as executive producers.
MOVIESinMO REVIEW
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is one of those movies you either love or hate, there’s really no middle ground for this one. If you don’t like or you are tired of fairytale movies, you might want to pass BUT if you love fantasy, fairies, castles, princesses, Kings, Queens, blah, blah, blah, you definitely need to see this movie. Angelina Jolie is back, and this time we learn a lot more about the “real” story of Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), her family, and the origin of Maleficent. So for the fairytale lover, Disney made sure to check off every storytelling box of importance. There’s love, romance, conflict, betrayal, gorgeous visuals, and a moral that’s on point with today’s issues of acceptance. The story adds multiple layers as the movie progresses, but never becomes so complicated that a child would not understand the message. Throughout the film, several scenarios define each character and create further separations between who is really good and/or evil. This helped ensure a more emotional attachment to certain characters, so when something happened to them, you cared – a lot. As I stated earlier, Disney checked off every box. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is as good, not better or worse, as the first film but for different reasons. This second movie explores more of Maleficent as a person (Dark Fae species) and exposes the Kingdom as the real monsters. This is where parts of the original story start to crumble, and the people are shown the truth about Maleficent, Aurora, and the magical forest known as the Moors. The story as a whole is better than the first movie, but things get a bit lazy towards the end. The end result is a film that had so much more potential but settled for mediocre. Disney fans will defend it as misunderstood while standard moviegoers will see through the multi-million dollar façade and call it what it is – an average movie not worth the blockbuster status it was given.
OUR RATING – A STANDARD DISNEY 6
Media
- Genre – Action
- Street date
- Digital – December 31st 2019
- DVD/Blu-Ray/4K – January 14th 2020
- Video – 1080p
- Screen size – 2:39.1
- Sound – English: Dolby Atmos
- Spanish, German, Italian, Japanese, and French 7.1 Dolby Digital Plus
- French-Canadian Dolby Digital 5.1
- English 2.0 Descriptive Audio
- Subtitles – English SDH, German, Italian, Japanese, Norwegian, Spanish, Swedish, French and French Canadian
Extras
- Origins of Fey (HD, 3 Mins.) – A short piece on the origins of Maleficent and her species.
- Aurora’s Wedding (HD, 3 Mins.) – A brief look at the film’s big marriage scene that looks into the wardrobe, music, and more.
- If You Had Wings (HD, 4 Mins.) – A look at the visual and practical effects of the wings in the film and how they complete the characters.
- Maleficent: Mistress of Evil VFX Reel (HD, 2 Mins.) – Another all-too-short glimpse at the raw and finished visual effects of the film with some commentary.
- Extended Scenes (HD, 4 Mins.) – Two short extended scenes.
- Outtakes (HD, 2 Mins.) – Here is your standard montage of flubbed lines, missed cues, laughing and dancing from the set.
- Music Video (HD, 3 Mins.) – Bebe Rexha performs “You Can’t Stop the Girl”.