In ‘Maleficent: Mistress of Evil’ Disney tells a fairytale and says it’s not one
Let me tell you something at the outset- I love fairytales. I’ve a feelingthat’s a statement you don’t get to hear from many fully grown adults — people who are at the wrong side of 30 and have cynicism written all over their face.
But that’s the God’s honest truth- I like fairytales like how your average 5 year old likes ice cream.
I know that fairytales often set in us unfeasible expectations regarding life in general and relationships in particular. I also know that many fairytales tend to reduce a motive for a character’s action into one single aspect- a far cry from how humans behave in real life, with the force of multiple social-personal reasons behind our actions.
Notwithstanding such shortcomings, I still love the form.
One could argue that this love is born from our simple yet often necessary need to escape from reality from time to time. And what better place to escape than an imaginary kingdom populated by witches and talking flowers, and what better way to do that than by watching the story unfold in the biggest possible screen you could find?
But in my case, it’s not a wish for temporary escapism that propels me to read or watch a fairytale. (I tend to rely more on music for that.).
For me, the biggest draw of fairytales is the sheer power of storytelling- if the story is compelling enough, we sometimes even buy the most preposterous thing the story tells you.; and nowhere is this more evident than in fairytales.
It was with the hope of experiencing this quirkily childlike aspect of storytelling that I went to watch ‘Maleficent: mistress of evil’- a film I was unsure of going to because I heard mixed reviews. But only when I reached the theater did I see the poster- more precisely, the tagline on it which spells out that the film is not a fairytale.
While watching the film, it occured to me that it was because the Queen of the castle (Michelle Pfeiffer) was the film’s villain — she literally stabs her husband in the back- and not the titular Maleficent(Angelina Jolie with two black horns)that the claim was made.
But the story, which is all about the Queen’s desire to bring war to the magical creatures of the moors so that she could conquer that land and expand her kingdom, is as fairy a tale as you could get.
You even have a young princess and a prince who wish to get married. The princess in question is the ruler of the moorland and also Maleficent’s godchild. The prince is the Queen’s son.
Maleficent is a horned creature of magic who lives in the moors and is feared by the Queen’s subjects.
But just by flipping the characters- by making Maleficent good and the supposedly good Queen evil, doesn’t make this any less of a fairytale, not any more than all that prosthetic make-up make Jolie look any less beautiful.
The visuals crafted by director Joachim Rønning and his cinematographer, Henry Braham are often beautiful and sometimes even awe inspiring. The visual effects are fittingly enchanting. There are attempts at jokes- especially by Maleficent’s servant Diablo the raven(Sam Riley)- some of which land while others splatter.
All the actors including Jolie and Elle Fanning who plays Aurora, the Princess of the moors, play their part with a certain stoniness which borders on disinterest. The only exception is Pfeiffer who does her best with the material she has been given in the script, and even manages to display real emotions from time to time. (Watching her deep-felt contentment when the innocent magical creatures are murdered by her soldiers is particularly chilling.)
Notwithstanding its many downsides, I found the movie better than I expected- with arresting visuals and a plot that even while offering nothing new, still ratchets up the dramatic intrigue the more the movie progresses.
I’m traditionally not a fan of Disney films- except for a few exceptions like the original animated ‘The lion king.’
Whenever I watch one of the studio’s films, I somehow get the feeling that they tell the same story over and over again, regardless of the different songs and changes in settings.
I got the same feeling while watching ‘Maleficent: mistress of evil.’
I haven’t seen the 2014 prequel to the film. So, I don’t know how they both compare to each other.
But I can tell you that the new film is like most other Disney films- it’s also a fairy tale.
Don’t let the posters tell you otherwise.
