Maleficent

Representatives of American studios will probably find my well-intentioned advice unconvincing, but just in case, here you go: When you next want to rehabilitate a fairy tale archvillain, don't skimp and hire a capable screenwriter alongside the cast and crew. I have nothing against alternative stories and different perspectives - I can even accept a gingerbread house being portrayed as a raid by ill-behaved imps destroying an old witch's dwelling, who in a sudden burst of emotion decides to deal with her lack of protein. Just write and film it in a way that makes sense within the context of the fairy tale world and its rules. Unfortunately, Maleficent fails in this aspect. The king, who faces a curse from his only daughter, the queen of the magical world, doesn't have her guarded like his most precious possession by an army of servants, but instead entrusts her upbringing to three clearly inept and quarrelsome fairies - representatives of the world with which he is at war. Nobody watches over the girl, and she regularly meets with the queen of the magical realm without any problems. Except for Maleficent, the other characters are underdeveloped, and in the end, the film relies on traditional Hollywood weapons - set design and special effects. Angelina handles her part with ease, while the other actors don't bring much to the table. I'm somewhat bothered by the visual style that caters to kids and the biggest kitsch enthusiasts. But then again, what can I expect from a family spectacle? Overall impression: 45%. (05/10/2017)

A classical fairytale story spiced up with an opulent production design and at times very raw adult undertones. It's beautiful to look at, Angelina's performance is great and the the world captivates with the visual sophistication of itself and its characters, but unlike, for example, the more story-driven and narrative Snow White and the Huntsman, this film looks like a mess that tries to embrace several genres too superficially to satisfy the widest possible audience. Nice adventure for the whole family, but nothing surprising from the Americans. 70% (10/10/2015)

Avatar style. Maleficent really looks like she is off to fight Pandora, and in modern Snow White style, she tries to persuade us that she was right to be mad at the king. And it works. Angelina’s acting is excellent and so I found the rather lackluster Sharlto Copley disappointing (although in truth he didn’t have much of a part to play). I don’t know if incessant updating will work with all fairytales, but so far it seems to be going well. (08/26/2014)

A very atypical 180 million-dollar budget affair that is shorter and more concise than it may seem at first glance. It is surprising how Robert Stromberg builds it from scratch, going straight to the point, without beating around the bush and letting Angelina Jolie fool around with horns and mischievously giggle to add to it all. Unfortunately, the story suffers quite a bit, so if you manage to catch onto the hackneyed plot and see it through the barrage of visual effects and camera flyovers and zooms like in Avatar, you will see that it is very generic and visually polished – maybe even excessively so. Some of the visual effects are aweful, and there’s also the madman Sharlto Copley. (02/20/2015)

Maleficent gave me almost everything I once expected from Snow White with Julia Roberts as the evil queen. A notorious story imaginatively turned on its head, a magical world where the fairytale meets the darker fantasy stuff, as well as an amazing main character on whom everything is of course based. Angelina Jolie is great in the lead role. She is very pretty, she has no problem expressing any emotion, and every smile (there are not many, but they are there) is literally magical. Moreover, the film boasts a beautiful production design, as the rookie director obviously had a lot of visual ideas and James Newton Howard again pulled successful theme music out of his sleeve, the special effects are just right and the flashy digital ones are only occasionally there. The only thing that bothered me was probably the trio of fairy godmothers, especially since they stopped being digital, while the much talked about useless prince is a pretty good joke considering the original fairy tale (where he also does almost nothing because the fairies do most of the work for him). (10/25/2014)