Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)

[SamT]

Title: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Genre: Fantasy

Director: Joachim Rønning

Cast: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Michelle Pfeiffer, Harris Dickinson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Ed Skrein, David Gyasi, Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Jenn Murray, Kae Alexander, Fernanda Diniz, Judi Shekoni, Robert Lindsay, Juno Temple, Teresa Mahoney, Sam Riley

Release: 2019-10-16

Plot: 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, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 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.

 

[SamT]

 

[dpippel]

Oy, Disney. Yawn, and that title makes it sound like she should be hosting a Saturday afternoon scary movie show.

 

[Jake Lipson]

This sequel should not exist. Maleficent should have died at the end of the first film because it's Sleeping Beauty and that's what the ending is. Obviously, they decided not to do that, but I'll stick with the animated film.

I passed on the first Maleficent and see no reason to do otherwise here.

Hard pass.

But seriously, did anyone ask for this? It feels like this could be like Alice Through the Looking Glass where they make the second one because the first one was a financial success, only to find that the audience didn't want another one. Disney has been on such a roll this year that they can afford it if, hypothetically, this bombs. But I'm really curious what it's going to do.

The first trailer was attached to Aladdin and the second one just released will obviously be with The Lion King next week, so they're obviously getting a bunch of in-theater views. Whether that translates to people actually coming to see it or not, we'll see. But this is one of those rare Disney titles I personally will skip.

 

[StrongRex]

The first attempt to make a Maleficent movie was more than bad enough. Disney can take this "sequel" and shove it.

 

[Thomas Newton]

This sequel should not exist. Maleficent should have died at the end of the first film because it's Sleeping Beauty and that's what the ending is. Obviously, they decided not to do that, but I'll stick with the animated film.

"Into The Malifecent-Verse"?

Malicifent-666 – "I say we all gang up to do in this dimension's Sleeping Beauty. Then we jump to the next dimension and do the same there, and so on. Afterwards we can go our own ways."

Malificent-667 – "Great idea. I never (sarcastic tone) would have thought of it."

Malicifent-Prime – "Before we do that, since you all come from my future, could you give me a heads-up?"

Malificent-200 – "Oh, you don't want THAT."

Malificent-Prime – "Why not?"

Malificent–200 – "Because you die there …"

 

[Jeff Cooper]

This sequel should not exist. Maleficent should have died at the end of the first film because it's Sleeping Beauty and that's what the ending is. Obviously, they decided not to do that, but I'll stick with the animated film.

Didn't they already diverge from this with 'Descendants'? I mean how did all these villains have kids if they're all dead?

 

[Robert Crawford]

So I guess none of you guys are going to see this movie? TBH, it looks like a box office bomb to me as I don't see the public being that interested in this movie.

 

[StrongRex]

So I guess none of you guys are going to see this movie? TBH, it looks like a box office bomb to me as I don't see the public being that interested in this movie.

No. Disney already screwed up Maleficent super badly in what was supposed to be her own movie. I'm not going to watch them do it even more. At this point, Disney is just kicking this character while she's down.

 

[StrongRex]

Didn't they already diverge from this with 'Descendants'? I mean how did all these villains have kids if they're all dead?

Descendants sucks. And Maleficent was horribly miscast in that film.

 

[RobertR]

Disney would have to pay ME to watch this movie. It wouldn't be cheap.

 

[benbess]

https://variety.com/2019/film/reviews/maleficent-mistress-of-evil-review-angelina-jolie-1203365992/

"The true Disney villains in this case are off screen, sabotaging the studio’s canon from within."

 

[Jason_V]

So I guess none of you guys are going to see this movie? TBH, it looks like a box office bomb to me as I don't see the public being that interested in this movie.

I did. I can't say I am a fan of the first movie-I find it kinda boring, honestly-so I went to Mistress of Evil out of a sense of duty, I guess. The first ten or fifteen minutes, I was like...oh crap, this is going to be monumentally terrible. The film does get better from there, mostly riding on Jolie's performance. The CGI (and there is a LOT of it) looks fake and I couldn't give a care about the human characters. Elle Fanning isn't compelling as Aurora, the guy playing Phillip is sleepwalking and Michelle Pfeiffer does okay.

The story is just head bangingly mundane. I get what they're doing-I really do!-but I just don't care. It's standard mustache twirling bad guy stuff everyone will see coming a mile away. Boredom set it for me about halfway through and I never recovered. This is a PG movie designed for families in the vein of the inoffensive 70s Disney live action films. The moments that should produce grief are glossed over and forgotten; the truly hideous things being done in the third act are never hashed out and everyone seems to forget what happened mere moments before. That's the actual travesty here:

Spoiler: Spoiler

The human kill magical creatures en masse through the entire final battle. Over and over again, these sentient beings are on screen on moment and snuffed out the next...like Thanos snap snuffed out. There's hardly a tear shed for any of them.

Bah, not recommended unless you liked the first one.

 

[benbess]

Somewhat to my surprise my wife wants to see this, even though we both missed the first one. Since it's included with A-list, we have a tentative date for a Saturday matinee in IMAX.

 

[Robert Crawford]

Somewhat to my surprise my wife wants to see this, even though we both missed the first one. Since it's included with A-list, we have a tentative date for a Saturday matinee in IMAX.

I saw it today in a Dolby Cinema theater and enjoyed it quite a bit. It's not something I want to revisit, but as an A-Lister too, I was entertained. Unfortunately, the second movie that was showing at that same Dolby Cinema theater got interrupted by a power outage that affected the whole mall area and neighborhood. Looks like I have to finish up the last 25 minutes of Zombieland Double-Tap at my local AMC theater as that Dolby Cinema is a 130 mile round trip for me.

 

[benbess]

My wife and I liked this much more than we thought we would. "B+" IMAX pq and sound very good, as usual.

 

[Wayne_j]

I saw this in IMAX today and liked it a good deal more than I did the first one. In this movie I would say that Jolie and Fanning are co-leads.

 

[John Sparks]

Ordered my 3D copy of the movie to do my part to try and keep 3D alive.

 

[MatthewA]

Bah, not recommended unless you liked the first one.

Which for me means hard pass, possibly the hardest pass since Spice World. But if you saw it after not liking the original, then you're a braver man than I am.

This is a PG movie designed for families in the vein of the inoffensive 70s Disney live action films.

That's part of it: this should have been a PG-13, especially for a film subtitled Mistress of Evil. And it wouldn't even be the studio's first since the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were all or mostly PG-13, and that didn't seem to hurt their box-office take.

 

[StrongRex]

That's part of it: this should have been a PG-13, especially for a film subtitled Mistress of Evil. And it wouldn't even be the studio's first since the Pirates of the Caribbean movies were all or mostly PG-13, and that didn't seem to hurt their box-office take.

If the first Maleficent would have been written better and given the proper backstory with everyone in character, it could have done well as a PG-13 movie.