{"id":19301,"date":"2019-10-17T15:05:29","date_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:05:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=19301"},"modified":"2019-10-17T15:05:29","modified_gmt":"2019-10-17T22:05:29","slug":"maleficent-mistress-of-evil-wont-beguile-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=19301","title":{"rendered":"MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL Won\u2019t Beguile Adults"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/24_0005_C-merged-Copy.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-3148\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It has been five years since the villainess from <em>Sleeping\nBeauty<\/em> was updated and transformed from a malevolent and sinister force\ninto a misunderstood and tortured soul. The resulting film was a box office\nsuccess, leading to the latest chapter in the series, <em>Maleficent: Mistress\nof Evil<\/em>. Yes, the title is a bit of a misnomer, since the central character\nis once again treated poorly by humankind and forced into a situation beyond\nher control. Kids and those who enjoyed the first film will likely enjoy what\nthey see, but those who weren\u2019t charmed by the original won\u2019t find anything to\nconvert them in this follow-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Maleficent-Jolie-med-three-leads.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19302\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The story picks up with Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) and her\nmother, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) still tending to the Moors, their magical\nhomeland. When Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) of the human realm proposes to\nAurora, she accepts and almost all of the kingdom is joyful, knowing that their\ntwo worlds will now be able to live in peace (although they were already\nsupposed to be doing this at the end of the previous flick). Anyway, Phillip\u2019s\nmom, the sinister Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer), uses the marriage to plot wiping\nout the magical world forever. She invites Maleficent to a family dinner and\nsets her guest up, causing family friction and inciting a war between the two\nrealms. It\u2019s easy work for Ingrith, seeing as she already has an army of workers\nunder the castle building a massive arsenal that the peaceful King (Robert\nLindsay) is somehow completely unaware of. &nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Maleficent-meeting-at-castle-1024x585.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19303\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This film assumes that the viewers will remember and be very\nfamiliar with the characters from the original. For those who didn\u2019t just watch\nthe first film, it takes some time to catch up on who everyone is. Early on, Jolie\nwisely tries to infuse some humor into Maleficent as she practices how to\nbehave nicely in the company of her in-laws. But that all changes by the end of\nthe first act, and the remainder of the picture is decidedly more serious with\nlittle in the way of amusing jokes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Maleficent-Jolie-explosions-1024x472.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19305\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Like in the first picture, the supporting characters here\nare archetypes that are thinly drawn, which makes the big emotional moments\nless involving and their highly dubious decision-making skills feel like\nmechanizations to move the plot forward.&nbsp;\nThere\u2019s one bit late in the film in which a group of characters are\ntrapped in a church with toxic fumes being shot out by a villain while the pipe\norgan is being played; it takes an interminable amount of time before the group\nrealizes that their predicament might have something to do with the\norganist.&nbsp; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Admittedly, some of the stranger plot elements and holes won\u2019t\nreally upset children in the audience, but they will be a constant issue for\nadults. In fact, if the protagonists had talked clearly and listened to each\nother regarding the tragedy, there wouldn\u2019t be much of a movie at all. It seems\nthat the filmmakers have to force a way into leaving Maleficent as an outcast\nexile, feeling hurt and broken because no one believes or trusts her. As such,\nviewers may feel like they have seen all of this before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Maleficent-Jolie-Fanning-green-1024x534.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19304\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing the film does have going for it are incredible\nvisuals. The camera frequently flies through the wonderous fantasy world,\nspinning around and giving an impressive scope to the pretty environments. There\nis plenty of spectacle too as the two kingdoms square off in a giant battle during\nthe finale. However, while the fantasy domain itself is eye-catching, the\nmagical CGI characters are a little tougher to appreciate. Yes, they are well\nanimated, but many of them aren\u2019t given enough to do to make an impact. The\nthree fairies from the first film return and look as unsettling as ever.\nThere\u2019s just something distracting and disconcerting about seeing human faces\ndigitized, shrunken and inserted onto a computer-animated bodies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/Maleficent-Pheiffer-crossbow-1024x556.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-19306\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the end, <em>Maleficent: Mistress of Evil<\/em> looks\nphenomenal and is filled with plenty of action and drama, but the characters\nnever ingratiate themselves and the story is laid out in too direct and obvious\na manner to generate any real suspense. While the picture should still work for\ntykes, it\u2019s unlikely that any adults thinking of going to the movies will be beguiled\nby what they see. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been five years since the villainess from Sleeping Beauty was updated and transformed from a malevolent and sinister force into a misunderstood and tortured soul. The resulting film was a box office success, leading to the latest chapter in the series, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. Yes, the title is a bit of a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":19307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,1429,5922,6849,7314,12535,12973,12974,12975,12976,12977,13872,18035,18528,24383],"class_list":["post-19301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-angelina-jolie","tag-disney","tag-elle-fanning","tag-fantasy","tag-live-action","tag-maleficent","tag-maleficent-mistress-of-evil","tag-maleficent-mistress-of-evil-film-review","tag-maleficent-mistress-of-evil-movie-review","tag-maleficent-mistress-of-evil-review","tag-michelle-pfeiffer","tag-sequel","tag-sleeping-beauty","tag-witch"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}