…because film is largely subjective
by Frederick William Springer III
Maleficent
Release Date: 30 May 2014 Runtime: 97 Minutes
Review Date: 23 September 2014 Rating: 4.5 (of 6)
They say not to
judge a book by its cover and this certainly applies to Maleficent, the bookends here pretty atrocious. It doesn't behoove anyone, does your
credibility a great disservice in fact, to open your film with really fake
looking CGI. It ran rampant the first
couple minutes and you'd think this was some newfangled technology, that this
was still the 90s. That jarring. Listen, if you
get your story started first, introduce us to the characters, get us involved
and THEN want to throw some bad CGI in our face, we might accept it in the
confines of the story, the story propelling our imagination and thus forgiving
the faux pas, turning a blind eye to it.
But when you don't even have dialogue or characters yet, not excusable.
The end--I'm
talking the start of the credits, not spoiling the final scenes (though, there
will be spoilers ahead in this review)--then had a really hurt-the-ears awful rendition
of "Once Upon a Dream" sung by
Lana Del Rey. Don't get me wrong, I can
dig moody covers--Marilyn Manson's version of the Eurythmics' "Sweet
Dreams" for the House on Haunted
Hill remake comes to mind--but do us all a favor and never hire this chic
again.
Now, in between
these pages, if you will, was an alright story.
The narrator explained from the start that this would be a different
version than we're accustomed to, so I could accept the changes made in the
tale. While not anything extraordinary,
it was an interesting take.
However--and here
is where the ***SPOILERS*** come into play--there was 2 major points of
contention and also a moment of coming to the table too late.
The first, the 3
fairies, who had been friends with Maleficent, go to give gifts to the newborn
Aurora. From the tale this yarn was
spinning, this doesn't jive in the least.
You mean, with the fairy world and human world kept separate because of
the human propensities toward greed and power, the previous king attempting to
start a war with you for no reason other than wanting your treasures and land,
a war that was only averted by Maleficent, you're going to bear gifts to the
newborn of the new king, the man that not only betrayed Maleficent but maimed
and disfigured her by hacking off her wings?
Really? REALLY?
Shame on you.
Second, the curse
was changed. Here, Maleficent has strong
motive to curse Aurora with death as she did in the original cartoon and fairy
tale. But instead, rather lamely, she
curses her with eternal sleep here. After all
that was done to you, the anger evident in everything about you, exuding from
every pore, why bother? Even with the
disclaimer that this wasn't a version we've heard before, this change still
falls flat after the preceding build-up.
As for coming too
late to the table, this relates to their interpretation of "true love's
kiss". If it hadn't been done
before, it would be fresh, unique, perhaps even surprising. However, you're 2 years too late, a similar
interpretation played out on television's Once
Upon a Time at the end of their first season, leaving us to easily guess
what's going to transpire here.
In its favor,
Elle Fanning as Aurora does look more suitable for someone gifted with beauty
than Kristen Stewart looked "fairest of them all" in Snow White and the Huntsman. That being said, Juno Temple who played fairy
Thistletwit would have been more suitable in the role regarding that chracteristic, even if she was 24 in
real life when it was filming rather than 15.
No comments:
Post a Comment