Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

by Philip Price

Director: Joachim Rønning
Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning & Michelle Pfeiffer
Rated: PG
Runtime: 1 hour & 59 minutes

For a movie that primes its audience to experience a tale of villainy and "pure evil" as incarnated by the title character of Maleficent (a returning Angelina Jolie), “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” largely doesn't fulfill its promise as the character is a mistress in the sense she's in a position of authority or control, but never does she wield these positions in ways one would exclusively associate with or consider to be "evil."
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Misunderstood, sure, but evil? Nah.

Like the 2014 original, this sequel is more telling the audience a story we were unaware of concerning the character with the intention of ultimately altering our opinion of her and gaining a newfound sympathy for the character as her representation in the 1959 Disney animated classic was apparently a by-product of those circumstances and not "the whole story"; a reputation built off a single perspective of not only an isolated incident, but one with some justification as far as Maleficent's emotions were concerned even if her actions never could be. While that 2014 film was more or less restricted by the original tale of “Sleeping Beauty” (we've seen the iconic cursing of the baby moment in live action, so let's move on) this second chapter in Maleficent's story breaks free of those constraints and pushes the narrative past Aurora's (Elle Fanning, also returning) 16th birthday and on into adulthood where she is now set to wed the re-cast Prince Philip (Harris Dickinson instead of Brenton Thwaites) as they start a life of their own together. With Maleficent having now inadvertently become something of a mother figure to this young woman she originally cursed and has therefore only recently come to feel as if she's gained the genuine love of what she might describe as a family though, trouble's a-brewin'.

Jolie's Maleficent exudes this gracefulness as embodied simply through the strong presence of Jolie herself, but Jolie layers her performance to show Maleficent is not only a warrior and commander, but a woman who is complex in her deep, emotional feelings that the film demonstrates are also possible for someone of such a strong nature to possess. It is this characterization and the breaking of such long-standing archetypes that truly allows this sequel to outshine not only its predecessor, but the majority of these live-action Disney re-makes and re-telling's.

Director Joachim Rønning (“Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales”) takes over from Robert Stromberg and brings with him an aesthetic less reliant on big, CGI spectacle (though there is still plenty of that) and a visual prowess more interested in broadening the scope of the world the first film only hinted at. At the same time, Linda Woolverton's screenplay brings together a trifecta of female characters that serve as the heart and soul of the themes of the narrative coalescing in a sequel that not only surpasses the quality of the original (which, admittedly-was not a high bar) by doing everything that original wanted to do, only better.