Maleficent (2014)

Watched Disney's Maleficent this evening. It was quite enjoyable.

Make no mistake, there were bits of it that were pure traditional Disney, like the crowning of the queen and all's well that ends well. The process to get there, and the twist in the plotline, however, I appreciated and was not your typical Disney Princess story.

For one, the kiss of true love was not by his royal Prince, but by a "godmother". I liked the twist to that. It seems the recent Disney movies have been trying to promote "family bonds" or the like in their recent movies (e.g. Brave, Frozen, Maleficent). The righting of a wrong and the feeling of remorse was a nice touch. The whole "two wrongs don't make a right" and "don't let greed overcome you" were good themes for the movie. Overall, it was surprisingly well made in terms of being kid and adult-friendly. There weren't actually outright scenes of blood and gore, although the fight scenes were suitably chaotic and violent for a Disney show.

Angelina Jolie played the role well. And more importantly, I got my question answered of whether Maleficent would die at the end or not. I had a feeling it could have gone several ways. 1) She would have "pretend" died and there would be a scene somewhere at the end where one sees a Maleficent-turned-crow fly off into the sunset. Obviously, since it seems she couldn't turn into another creature in the movie, that wasn't going to happen. 2) She repents and stays "friends" with the Princess. 3) She just ups and dies.

The overall ending wasn't quite what I was expecting, per se, but it was a nice wrap-up to the whole thing. The death of the king was a little surprising for me. Admittedly, I didn't know how they were going to address that bit when it was revealed he started the ball rolling with his bad deed. I keep wondering how Aurora is supposed to just accept the fact that her father was killed off and probably not bothered about in the end, but I suppose the fact that he went psycho over the years and that she never grew up with him (and probably deduced that he was the trouble maker) probably dampened any feelings of guilt over that. Then again, it probably should have jaded her a touch, especially towards romantic love. But hey, Disney movies don't address such things. I suppose those topics will be left to fans to ruminate and disseminate and eventually fanfiction-ate over.

Conclusion: I liked the movie. It wasn't a typical you bad, me good, hear me triumph over all evil with love and peace and friendship movie plot. It was a nicely though out story done with appropriate censoring for younger and more sensitive eyes, without sacrificing feel-good, family-oriented lessons of life. More importantly, I didn't get bored halfway through and feel that it was utterly predictable and cliched. It's not the most profound story, nor is it going to win any Oscars, but it was a pleasant movie to watch without being boring. I wouldn't mind watching it again.