Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

The movie purposely focuses on the mother's love, it is the love that Maleficent has for her step-daughter Princess Aurora. The movie's purpose is absolutely successful because many audiences felt touched and even cried during the love scenes of Maleficent and Princess Aurora. After watching the movie, my friends even talked about one of the scenes between these two that made them cry, because they felt that the love of Maleficent for Aurora that makes her do whatever she must, even something that absolutely is opposite to her personality such as, smiling, and being kind to humans. This movie is an amazing dark fantasy adventure film with great realistic graphic details, story plot, and great acting. Although this movie contains few violent scenes that would be too much for sensitive viewers, this movie still provides valuable lessons such as a mother's love, the sacrify for others, the power of love, and the bravery. Therefore, these are the reasons why I consider this movie to be absolutely worth watching.

Patipat Suwannabut Mahasarakham University, Thailand

In 2014, audiences learnt the back-story behind Maleficent, the villainess of Disney's 1959 animated film Sleeping Beauty. Rather than being just a cackling sorceress, Maleficent painted its title character as someone who rose from tragedy and betrayal to form a complex bond with the young Princess Aurora. Directed by Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Caribbean: Salazar's Revenge), this sequel continues that story, pitting Maleficent against a conniving, ruthless new foe.

Angelina Jolie continues to be all sharp-cheekboned perfection as Maleficent. We were afraid that she might phone in it given that this is a sequel, but she still appears to relish the role. Not only does she gets numerous fabulous costume changes, Maleficent goes on a journey of discovering, getting acquainted with her people and learning about their customs and beliefs. There is a conflict between her allegiance to her fae kin and to Aurora, which gives the powerful character something to struggle with.

Much of the film works because of Michelle Pfeiffer. Casting her opposite Jolie was an inspired move. The early promotional materials tried to hide it, but there's no point beating about the bush now - Queen Ingrith is the "Mistress of Evil" of the title. Pfeiffer plays the villain with sneer and swagger hidden beneath a regal façade, with shades of her witch character from Stardust sometimes visible. Coming off like a PG-rated Cersei Lannister, it's an absolute hoot.

There's a lot going on in the plot of the movie, so it is to writers Linda Woolverton, Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue's credit that the movie never loses sight of its emotional core: the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora. They might not be on the same page for much of the film, but it cannot be questioned that Maleficent deeply loves and cares for Aurora, something Ingrith winds up exploiting.

Just as in the first film, the show is stolen by Sam Riley as Diaval, Maleficent's shape-shifting sidekick. Riley manages to be both cool and

While the visuals are often mesmerising and transporting, the film does lean very heavily on computer-generated imagery. This is expected of a fantasy adventure film, but some of the characters do seem unnatural. The Fairy Godmothers Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Thistlewit (Juno Temple) and Flittle (Lesley Manville) return from the first film, and their almost-human facial features sometimes cross over into the dreaded uncanny valley.

Prince Philip is boring, but then again, this is something inherent in the source material. Brenton Thwaites, who was busy filming Season 2 of Titans, is replaced by Harris Dickinson, who constantly seems a little bit confused and flat. However, this is also a sign that the film understands that Philip is not the main character, and that he does not have to be the hero to save the day. Chiwetel Ejiofor is almost completely wasted in a relatively small supporting role.

The action sequences in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil are grand and expansive. Like most big-budget high fantasy projects these days, it seems more than a little derivative of Game of Thrones, but the big battle scenes are dynamic and lively. The movie gets surprisingly dark, with the villain's plot involving genocide by way of biological warfare. However, the movie still has a bounce and a sense of humour to it and is never too self-serious the way something like Snow White and the Huntsman and its sequel The Huntsman: Winter's War sometimes were. The big climactic battle takes place in broad daylight, which is a relative rarity in films of this type.

This film has a completely different design team than the first but maintains a sense of visual continuity while also giving us something new. The costumes by Ellen Mirojnick are stunning, especially Maleficent's battle outfit which is a sexy, elegant body paint-style number. Production designer Patrick Tatopolous creates some gorgeous fantasy environments, chief of which is the hidden fae sanctuary comprising mini-environments which have different climates.

Some of it may be overly familiar, but there's still more creativity to this than to Disney's live-action remakes which are obligated to retrace the steps of their animated forebears. Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer pitted against each other is worth the price of admission.

Don't listen to the critics reviews, this is a fun and entertaining watch! It doesn't quite have the same impact as the first, but I still recommend watching/purchasing it!

It was kinda predictable, but in a nice, Disney-way... There was a sense of humor, action, fantasy and drama... I really love that Maleficent is more than just the villain,it shows that people have more layers... Also Angelina Jolie and Michelle Pfeiffer in one movie, haven't we all been waiting for that? And upcoming star Elle Fanning showed a soft nevertheless badass Aurora... It's just a shame Brenton Thwaites (prince Philip) couldn't be in it...

I honestly don't think the people leaving reviews watched the same movie. First and foremost, it's a kids movie. As far as kids movies go, it's pretty intense. There are some interesting themes that can be difficult to explain or aren't usually explained to children (ie life is not black and white, it's grey), which I was happy to see my daughter's (age 9) reaction to at the appropriate times. This was my favorite AJ movie I've ever seen. I don't remember her having many lines, but you feel her emotions throughout (especially maternal ones). There are definitely some weird story holes...and the ending was a little too "and everyone lived happily ever after". But...it's a kid's movie and that's ok.