Maleficent
May. 31st, 2014 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lunabee34Emma and I went to see Maleficent yesterday, and we both really liked it.
On a very superficial level, the movie is beautiful. The costuming is exquisite, the setting is gloriously strange, and Angelina Jolie is stunning. I enjoyed the casting—the actor they cast as young Maleficent is a dead ringer for Angie, and Elle Fanning is excellent as Aurora. And hello there, Dolores Umbridge!
I always liked the Disney Sleeping Beauty even though it’s probably one of the flatter Disney movies with the least complex characterizations. What I like so much about Maleficent is that all the characters gain dimension and complexity in a way that makes the story being told much stronger. In the Disney movie, Maleficent has no motive for cursing Aurora. She isn’t invited to the christening. That’s it. I know that fairies are traditionally portrayed as being very capricious and cruel, but within the logic of the Disney story, there’s no reason for her to overreact to that degree. It just seems like she wants to hurt people and that Aurora’s christening is as good an excuse as any. She’s a one-dimensional villain, albeit an exquisitely dressed one. In Maleficent, a rift exists between the worlds of the human and the fey. Maleficent manages to forge a friendship with Stefan despite their differences, but she ends up betrayed by him, the human she loves and thinks loves her in return. When he strips her of her wings, she is angry and afraid, and she wants revenge. She has a genuine motive for cursing Aurora.
The moment when Maleficent realizes what Stefan has done—wow! Angelina Jolie knocks that out of the park. And her physical acting is awesome, too; of course, she would have trouble walking without her wings. That little touch was very poignant, and I like that she continues to use a walking stick throughout the movie.
I also like that Maleficent the Dark Lord contains contradictions. She rules over the Moors, but she never harms another fey creature. They certainly seem afraid of her, but she doesn’t damage the land, and she doesn’t beat up on her subjects. I think that implicit in her actions is a fear that the humans will destroy the Moors and their inhabitants; she’s setting herself up as the Dark Queen so that she can protect the land she loves, not because she’s inherently malicious.
Let’s talk about Stefan for a moment. At least in my interpretation of the movie, Stefan genuinely does care for Maleficent, but he’s greedy and ambitious. He cares for her enough that when he thinks himself capable of killing her, he drugs her so that she’ll feel no pain; but when he realizes that he cares too much for her to kill her, he slices her wings from her back rather than abandoning his plan altogether. The guilt he feels for what he’s done and the retribution he fears slowly overtake him and overshadow any positives in his life. In the fairy tale and in the Disney movie, Aurora’s parents send her away to protect her, and that’s ostensibly Stefan’s motive, too. Except that when they’re reunited, he isn’t overcome with love; he dismisses Aurora and immediately goes back to obsessing over Maleficent. In this version of Sleeping Beauty, what kind of person banishes his daughter? The same kind who won’t visit his dying wife even though she begs for him. Emma made a comparison to Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and I think it’s an apt one. Stefan is consumed by guilt and fear to the point of madness, to the point that he believes he can hold conversations with the wings he stole from Maleficent.
The best part of the movie, though, is the fake out. See, Maleficent comes to care about Aurora deeply; in fact, she’s the only reason Aurora survives the blundering fairies appointed to care for her. She comes to care for Aurora so much that she wishes she could take back the curse, but the curse is too powerful to remove. I think that this is the one good thing Aurora’s Aunties do for her; if Aurora is inexorably caught by Maleficent’s curse, Maleficent is also inexorably caught in the fairies’ wish that everyone who interacts with Aurora will come to love her. When Maleficent realizes she can’t break the curse herself, she reluctantly agrees to try to awaken the sleeping Aurora with a kiss from a travelling prince.
The prince, looking like he just walked off the stage of a One Direction concert, meets up with Aurora before she succumbs to the curse, and they blush and stammer at each other, and we’re supposed to believe he’s her ticket to Wakes-ville. But I knew it was a fake out. I whispered to Emma during the movie: “They’re trying to trick us. It’s totally not the prince. It’s the crow dude. He’s her true love’s kiss.” I expected Maleficent’s servant (who she can turn into various animals and who has watched over and played with Aurora since she was a kid) to be the one to break the curse after Prince One Direction fails. And then I teared up when Maleficent is the one to break the curse. In this movie, true love’s kiss is maternal.
Such a good movie. Highly recommended.
On a very superficial level, the movie is beautiful. The costuming is exquisite, the setting is gloriously strange, and Angelina Jolie is stunning. I enjoyed the casting—the actor they cast as young Maleficent is a dead ringer for Angie, and Elle Fanning is excellent as Aurora. And hello there, Dolores Umbridge!
I always liked the Disney Sleeping Beauty even though it’s probably one of the flatter Disney movies with the least complex characterizations. What I like so much about Maleficent is that all the characters gain dimension and complexity in a way that makes the story being told much stronger. In the Disney movie, Maleficent has no motive for cursing Aurora. She isn’t invited to the christening. That’s it. I know that fairies are traditionally portrayed as being very capricious and cruel, but within the logic of the Disney story, there’s no reason for her to overreact to that degree. It just seems like she wants to hurt people and that Aurora’s christening is as good an excuse as any. She’s a one-dimensional villain, albeit an exquisitely dressed one. In Maleficent, a rift exists between the worlds of the human and the fey. Maleficent manages to forge a friendship with Stefan despite their differences, but she ends up betrayed by him, the human she loves and thinks loves her in return. When he strips her of her wings, she is angry and afraid, and she wants revenge. She has a genuine motive for cursing Aurora.
The moment when Maleficent realizes what Stefan has done—wow! Angelina Jolie knocks that out of the park. And her physical acting is awesome, too; of course, she would have trouble walking without her wings. That little touch was very poignant, and I like that she continues to use a walking stick throughout the movie.
I also like that Maleficent the Dark Lord contains contradictions. She rules over the Moors, but she never harms another fey creature. They certainly seem afraid of her, but she doesn’t damage the land, and she doesn’t beat up on her subjects. I think that implicit in her actions is a fear that the humans will destroy the Moors and their inhabitants; she’s setting herself up as the Dark Queen so that she can protect the land she loves, not because she’s inherently malicious.
Let’s talk about Stefan for a moment. At least in my interpretation of the movie, Stefan genuinely does care for Maleficent, but he’s greedy and ambitious. He cares for her enough that when he thinks himself capable of killing her, he drugs her so that she’ll feel no pain; but when he realizes that he cares too much for her to kill her, he slices her wings from her back rather than abandoning his plan altogether. The guilt he feels for what he’s done and the retribution he fears slowly overtake him and overshadow any positives in his life. In the fairy tale and in the Disney movie, Aurora’s parents send her away to protect her, and that’s ostensibly Stefan’s motive, too. Except that when they’re reunited, he isn’t overcome with love; he dismisses Aurora and immediately goes back to obsessing over Maleficent. In this version of Sleeping Beauty, what kind of person banishes his daughter? The same kind who won’t visit his dying wife even though she begs for him. Emma made a comparison to Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart,” and I think it’s an apt one. Stefan is consumed by guilt and fear to the point of madness, to the point that he believes he can hold conversations with the wings he stole from Maleficent.
The best part of the movie, though, is the fake out. See, Maleficent comes to care about Aurora deeply; in fact, she’s the only reason Aurora survives the blundering fairies appointed to care for her. She comes to care for Aurora so much that she wishes she could take back the curse, but the curse is too powerful to remove. I think that this is the one good thing Aurora’s Aunties do for her; if Aurora is inexorably caught by Maleficent’s curse, Maleficent is also inexorably caught in the fairies’ wish that everyone who interacts with Aurora will come to love her. When Maleficent realizes she can’t break the curse herself, she reluctantly agrees to try to awaken the sleeping Aurora with a kiss from a travelling prince.
The prince, looking like he just walked off the stage of a One Direction concert, meets up with Aurora before she succumbs to the curse, and they blush and stammer at each other, and we’re supposed to believe he’s her ticket to Wakes-ville. But I knew it was a fake out. I whispered to Emma during the movie: “They’re trying to trick us. It’s totally not the prince. It’s the crow dude. He’s her true love’s kiss.” I expected Maleficent’s servant (who she can turn into various animals and who has watched over and played with Aurora since she was a kid) to be the one to break the curse after Prince One Direction fails. And then I teared up when Maleficent is the one to break the curse. In this movie, true love’s kiss is maternal.
Such a good movie. Highly recommended.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 01:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-13 11:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-15 12:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-15 03:04 am (UTC)The main complaints I've seen are that she doesn't turn into a dragon and that she's given any motivation at all for doing her evil deeds. Apparently lots of people really love that the Disney character was totally flat and had no motivation for her actions and despise any attempt to make her multi-dimensional.
no subject
Date: 2014-06-15 04:21 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-06-16 02:38 pm (UTC)I totally get the impulse to romanticize things from childhood, but I'm getting the sense that a lot of people wanted a shot for shot remake of the Disney movie, which really isn't the purpose of a remake.