Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
Anyone disappointed in the final season of Game of Thrones should consider heading out to see the Maleficent sequel, which would have been better subtitled Game of Thorns.
It’s a darker, more action-oriented story than the fine 2014 retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of the sorceress — perhaps the best of Disney’s many reimaginings of its classic animated features. It was certainly the most original, and Angelina Jolie’s intense, slightly mad performance in the title role kept the film balanced between fairy tale and Shakespearian tragedy.
She’s back for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (the subtitle pertains to nothing specific in the movie but was evidently thought preferable to Maleficent 2), although she’s really just one of many cogs in this whirling allegory of misbegotten war. “This is no fairy tale,” says the movie’s real mistress of evil, Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), and she’s right. Maleficent 2 heads directly into fantasy epic territory and stays there until the end.
It begins with an overlong, deceptively twee sequence in the Moors, Maleficent’s realm, as hoards of magical creatures scurry about and Aurora (Elle Fanning), formerly the Sleeping Beauty and now Maleficent’s adopted daughter, agrees to marry her prince, Philip (Harris Dickinson). Their moms — Maleficent and Ingrith, queen of the realm adjacent to the Moors — don’t approve but pretend to go along, until a disastrous meet-the-parents dinner at the castle leaves King John (Robert Lindsay) in that familiar death-like sleep.
Turns out Ingrith is preparing her army for fairy genocide, and Maleficent finds an army of her own to fight back. As the battle commences, Pfeiffer stands on the ramparts looking every bit the twin of GOT’s Cersei Lannister, while an angry Maleficent flies around like a Daenerys Targaryen who is both queen and dragon. It’s all colorfully and complexly executed by Norwegian director Joachim Rønning, to much livelier effect than his previous Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017).
Whether the mayhem is appropriate for young children I’ll leave to their parents to decide, but it’s unceasingly captivating. The recent trend in cinematic fantasy warfare, including Game of Thrones and comic book movies, has been toward the dimly lit and grimy — gritty in every sense — often choppily shot and edited, as if that will make the impossible seem more real. Maleficent 2 is old school, with sunny skies, literal bursts of color, and utter clarity throughout the action. If it’s reminiscent of any recent movie, it’s more How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World than it is Avengers: Endgame.
Both Pfeiffer and Jolie enjoy digging into their power-hungry roles, while the younger folks have not much to do. The fairies of the Moors are also largely sidelined until the drawn-out post-battle finale, an ending that drags on a bit in the spirit of Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Sam Riley, returning as Maleficent’s shapeshifting sidekick Diaval, and Chiwetel Ejiofor, playing a new Maleficent ally, have showcase moments, and Warwick Davis is a welcome addition as Ingrith’s dwarf alchemist.
But this is largely a plot-driven affair, light on human (or fairy) drama. The visuals are grand, detailed, and quite marvelous, and for once the 3D upgrade is well worth the added cost.
All of this has next to nothing to do with Sleeping Beauty, and that’s just fine. Maleficent created a fully realized fantasy world apart from the Disney animated movie or the original fairy tale, and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil expands it, telling a story that’s consistent with this newly invented mythology. If only all of Disney’s live action reimaginings were so jam-packed with, well, fresh imagination.
Grade: B-plus. Rated PG (but seeming more like a PG-13). Playing at the AMC River Hills, Carolina Cinemark and Regal Biltmore Grande.
(Photo: Courtesy of Disney)
