Maleficent, Mistress of Evil, delivered exactly what you thought it should — good vs. evil with lots of action and an ending that was satisfying. It was fun and colorful, tense and exciting with lots of action and a ton of close ups! Zoom in on Angelina’s face, and yes her makeup is perfect, dialogue a bit then zoom in on Angelina’s face, yes, again her makeup is perfect, some action and other characters, then zoom in on Angelina’s face . . . you get my point.
The story was good in the next installment of Maleficent and it left room for another movie where both kingdoms would work together now that they are aware of each other. There was a lot of fanciful things, a frog as an alarm clock, different color fairies flying about, strange and unusual creatures and languages and communication that was fun to try to figure out!
Princess Aurora, played charmingly by Elle Fanning, has become engaged to Prince Phillip. The kingdoms rejoice but the Queen – does Michelle Pfieffer ever age — is beautiful but has an evil plan. She also gets a fair amount of zoom in shots, again perfect makeup, and even though she is dressed all in white, she still has dark things planned which include getting rid of Maleficent. She injures the King and proceeds to wage a war with the help of dark magic against the Moor people.
Maleficent has now discovered her own kind and is still conflicted between human and fey. Her daughter, Princess Aurora, is human but Maleficent is one of the strongest one of her kind with abilities no other has. She finds her world, led by the dashing Chiwetel Ejiofor, filled with children and elders and other creatures like her trying to survive as they are. She is able to bring the forces together and rise like a Phoenix out of the ashes to save both races.
Evil is always vanquished by love, as it is here, and you cheer at the end when the white Queen is changed into a goat with a pearl necklace! It’s too funny. It’s cute and interesting and a good installment in this series. You don’t mind so much that Maleficent is cranky and stubborn, you want them to find peace and work together for harmony. And Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora are beautiful together, of course, and all is well in fairyland. Onto the next.