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.

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.

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.

A visual treat while not being particularly subversive