Review: Maleficent (2014)

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Royalty, nobility, the gentry, and... how quaint! Even the rabble.

I haven't been excited about seeing a movie since Johnny Depp was cast as the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland! I have always imagined Angelina Jolie as the perfect actor to portray one of the baddest witches in the Disney princesses' universe... and it became true! She was nothing but excellent in the movie. In fact, all the other characters (even Sleeping Beauty herself) paled in comparison with Maleficent. She was the star of this movie, after all.

The movie is a retelling of the 1959 classic cartoon Sleeping Beauty but from Maleficent's point of view. It was an interesting take since I have never understood why King Stefan and the Queen didn't invite Maleficent to the christening of their daughter, Princess Aurora. The plot details of the live-action movie largely deviated from that of the cartoon; in the end, Maleficent was not the baddest after all. The evil stepmother in Snow White has seized that throne, in my opinion.

The twist in the end was not as surprising as it would have been if I had seen this movie before Brave, and Frozen... both animated movies associated with Disney as well. 

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