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Maleficent

Maleficent Poster

Critic Rating

5.9

14 Reviews
10 Ratings
40%
in favor

Audience Rating

6.5
0 Review
2 Ratings

Movie Info

Director

Running Time

Language

English

Synopsis

Maleficent explores the untold story of Disney's most iconic villain from the 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty and the elements of her betrayal that ultimately turned her pure heart to stone. Driven by revenge and a fierce desire to protect the moors over which she presides, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) cruelly places an irrevocable curse upon the human king's newborn infant Aurora. As the child grows, Aurora (Elle Fanning) is caught in the middle of the seething conflict between the forest kingdom she has grown to love and the human kingdom that holds her legacy. Maleficent realizes that Aurora may hold the key to peace in the land and is forced to take drastic actions that will change both worlds forever.Wikipedia

Maleficent Reviews

5

When the lights come back on in the end, it’s unlikely that much will stay with you, apart from Jolie’s scorching presence. She deserved better, and so did we.

Anupama Chopra
Hindustan Times

5

Stromberg, an Oscar-winning production designer, gives us a lot to look at – luminous pixies, magical moors, a crow that takes on many avatars and lots of intriguing creatures, big and small. Even Maleficent’s incredible wings have personality.I wish some of that had rubbed off on the writing.

Packed with lovely visuals and a predictable plot, this film is a one-woman show that could have been a little less brooding. It could have been brilliant but it chose to stick to its seat with its safety belt tightly binding it down.Its sad when a film fails to realise its own potential.Maleficent is almost magnificent.

7

Maleficent is pretty much Angelina Jolie's vehicle all the way, because looking at how she fits this role down to the letter, it's hard to imagine anyone else inhabiting the character of a good person-turned-evil as well as she does in this film. Fanning imbues her character with a freshness that balances off nicely against Maleficient's demeanour. All in all, an imaginative take on the old classic.

Maleficent will please Jolie fans, so watch it if you like dark fantasies about mystical creatures.

Rohit Khilnani
India Today

8

Go and watch the magnificent Maleficent on the big screen! It will transport you to another world and trust me you wouldn't want to come back.

Sachin Chatte
The Navhind Times

5

...there are long stretches where little or nothing happens and you desperately want the director to get on with it. As mentioned, the stress is on the visuals even though the 3D doesn’t contribute anything positive to experience. Angelina Jolie breathes some life into the film with her performance other wise this Sleeping Beauty doesn’t have a great deal to keep you awake.

The film is definitely better than the misbegotten Snow White and the Huntsman and the other recent fairytales trying to have an adult spin, but it surely isn't a classic. It's a missed opportunity.

Here was a chance to really add some life, some humanity to an iconic character, and Jolie squanders it with an expressionless and dispassionate performance. Perhaps she did this film just to cash in on Disney’s rejuvenated box-office clout. Viewers, however, should prove her wrong by simply re-watching Frozen.

Reviewer Profile
The Free Press Journal

-

Inspired by Charles Perrault’s harrowing story “La Belle au bois dormant” and the sanitized fairytale written by the Brothers Grimm, Maleficent is a feel good retelling of Disney’s 1959 classic film Sleeping Beauty about the wicked witch who places a curse on a hapless infant.

Saumya Sharma
BookMyShow

8

The film is Angelina Jolie all the way, from the story to her acting to her menacing ways, the actress gives her audience more than one reason to a make a beeline to the theatres. One can’t help but notice how beautiful Elle Fanning has grown up to be. As Princess Aurora, she does justice to the role. Plus, to add the cherry on the top, is the visually-pleasing cinematography and of course, the magic that lies beneath.

The reboot’s real interest is in conjuring up a tender relationship between a fairy, a princess and a crow, with enough twists to save a well-worn fairy tale from the curse of overuse.

Maleficent is fun for its appealing visuals — especially in the forest — and for watching Jolie. But that's not enough to make the whole film interesting. As the minutes tick by, you might even start feeling a bit like Sleeping Beauty herself comes to feel: Drowsy.

A visual treat while not being particularly subversive

Audience Reviews for Maleficent

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