Reviews

Rather than a review of a 30 year old movie, here is my recollection of a 30 year old movie. When was the first time you saw this movie? I remember the first time I saw this movie. Back in the '70s, one night there was 2 things on TV to choose from, this movie or a baseball game. How do I remember a baseball game, it was the night Hank Aaron was going after Babe Ruth's homerun record. Baseball or a movie. Tuned into the the baseball game, flipped to the movie -a western, cool. 'Uh, what is this no one is talking it makes no sense'. After what seemed like an eternity somebody finally spoke, Lee van Cleef. The rest is Movie History. Since then I have seen this movie well over 25 times. Numerous lines that have been etched into my memory. Forget whatever minor flaws this movie has. Put yourself in the movie. Sergio Leon, John Ford these are the people that defined "The Western". On a scale of 1-10, The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly is nothing less than a 10. Plop the tape into the VCR, sit back and experience a classic.

after a long time.. i saw a adventure movie, it was so amazing, really i like this movie... Maleficent is a an iconic villainous role. She is one of Disney's best characters cast from the dark side and when I saw the trailer I succumbed to the beauty they inlaid using Jolie as the sinister evil fairy. I was seduced to believing that I would be lured into a world of evil and treachery. I wanted to see how evil was born and vengeance would be enacted. I wanted to be able to bond with this evil force and be drawn deep into darkness, rooting for the bad girl. I knew it would be filled with beautiful scenes and Disney magic, but what I did not anticipate that the greatest treachery would be the film itself.

Jolie can most definitely embrace evil and the moments when she is allowed to succumb to the full force of Maleficent it is beautiful. Once you add in Goldie Locks however, you get a recipe for disaster. Suddenly I might as well be in a world of pink pixie dust, leprechauns and unicorns because this beautiful villain is disgraced into playing a role of a misunderstood black hearted fairy who really loved the doe eyed giggling Aurora.

Hell hath no fury than a woman scorned, this should have been the driving force behind the film. The beginning scenes of a youthful Maleficent should have been nixed to allow more time to build a love story that was even remotely believable. To fall from grace the betrayal has to be tangible and dripping with poison. It must be something more than just a monologue infatuation and stolen wings. They said years passed and yet I felt nothing of a bond or great love that would give birth to Maleficent's destiny.

In Disney's Rapunzel the "mother" figure who raised Rapunzel from a baby never fell in love with the child as a daughter. She was still greedy, evil and dedicated to her path. So why must the world's most wonderful villain turn to a soft hearted Godmother of a vapid child. I know Disney is trending this "don't bet on the prince" idea and that's fine I support that, but really...they thought this was "no truer love."

If they think the king suffered by simply being tortured with the countdown till his child's demise then they are sadly mistaken. That was child's play. A woman changed by betrayal to the dark side has more ideas in her play-book that can make a man suffer. Madness would have been the king knowing that Maleficent knew the entire time where Aurora was hiding. Maleficent should have been sending him snippets of hair or visions of his daughter with the raven peering down at him while he slept. He should have been physically and mentally destroyed, a raving lunatic.

I would have rather liked to see a double treachery in the story. That only the raven knew all along where Aurora was and hid it from his mistress. We could watch the anger burn and grow within Maleficent because she wasn't able to find the child for 16 years. That in the interim the raven would randomly turn into human form and it would have been those two that fell in love and the tragic day that Maleficent discovers her location through some fool's errand played by the three dopey fairies guarding her, absconds with the child and let's the curse play out its course. Then I would have a mega battle scene at the edge of the forest against the king, let her have her righteous moment when she takes his life all the while the king knowing his daughter is stuck in endless slumber with no hope of her being saved. Then during the battle the raven after escaping the battlefield leaves Maleficent's side to try and wake Aurora. When Maleficent discovers her minion's treachery the pain and anger at being betrayed for a second time by her own kind would fill her from the pit of her stomach up through her spine and a black fire filling her eyes transforming to the great dragon and an epic battle of good and evil which will lead to her glorious death! That would have at least been something!

Then they could have there happier ever after. Then all those still shots of Maleficent looking like a falling angel in the glimmering sunlight would have been more picturesque, more visually twisted.

Overall, I feel I paid $15 dollars for another movie funded by the Prozac and Xanax manufacturers that spread fallacies that evil fairies are really good, vampires are not evil blood suckers and werewolves make great best friends. It's a snooze and a travesty. If you love the traditional iconic role of Maleficent remain in darkness and forget the lies the trailer told you for the glorious black dragon is covered in daffodils and pink tutus in this film.