Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Review
Spoiler Free
On the 18th October 2019 in the UK Maleficent: Mistress of Evil was released and it’s the sequel to the original Maleficent film
It once again stars Angelia Jolie as Maleficent, Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora, Sam Riley as Diaval and Harris Dickinson plays Prince Philip. We also have some new members of the cast. Chiwetel Ejiofor plays Conall, Ed Skrein plays Borra, Robert Lindsay plays King John and Michelle Pfeiffer plays Queen Ingris.
The first Maleficent film focused mainly on the updated and improved retelling of Sleeping Beauty. It showed how Maleficent, although she did curse Aurora, wasn’t evil and did have a heart. It also showed the reasons for why Maleficent did what she did. It was a beautifully rich film and that’s something I’m happy they brought into this new film. From the beginning of the film you guide around Ulstead and the Moors and it feel unfathomable that this world doesn’t exist in real life because it’s so rich with the beautiful buildings, the colourful nature of the moors and the people and the creatures that inhabit those worlds.
The film dives into the story from start and from there you’re whisked off on a story that’s full to bursting with such interesting characters, all of them, from the minor to the major. Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingris was perfect. She reminded me a lot of her character in Lamia from “Stardust”, they have a lot in common. Robert Lindsay as King John was a little shocking of a choice, I remember him from his days of playing Ben Harper in the BBC sitcom “My Family”, however he brought such a warm and gentle nature to the role.
Elle brought the same beautiful and gentle nature to this film as she did the first, but at times I was frustrated by her characters lack of action in the beginning. I don’t put this down to Elle, I put this down to the direction her character was up in. Aurora is a lot wiser than her character was made out to be in the beginning of the film. It’s a shame that for the first half of the film we’re stuck with the same cliché that most films fall into: A misguided character learns whoose actually in the wrong.
Harris Dickinson is going to be someone to watch. I don’t think he was able to show his full potential in this film because Disney didn’t want to turn Aurora into a character who only means something because of who she is which I greatly appreciate. However because they wanted to focus more on Aurora and the other cast, Philip was more in the background. If they do another film I wouldn’t mind Philip being more in centre stage.
The one cast choice we can’t not talk about is Maleficent who was played by Angelina Jolie. I had my reservations about her playing the role in the first film, but when you see her in action you quickly reason she’s perfect for the role. Her dead pan face, the power and terror and selflessness she can command is tremendous and she adds a lot to the film.
One small change I would make to the film if I could is that I would have liked to have seen some funny moments. Throughout the whole film I can only remember one small laughing moment and that was a very silly one. The film in part dealt with some really horrible situation and I would have preferred it if humour was there throughout the film to remind you that this is an enjoyable film to watch. Sometimes films are too serious, it’s nice to have some comedy.
I loved the storyline of this film. It didn’t feel like they wanted to make just another Maleficent film, it felt justified and I would say that it is just as good, if not better than the first film. Very few live action Disney films are worth it, I’m looking at you “A Wrinkle in Time”, but Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, I would not put it in that category.
Let me know what you thought in the comments below.
Disney Inside 
You must be logged in to post a comment.