Maléfique

Avatar style. Maleficent really looks like she is off to fight Pandora, and in modern Snow White style, she tries to persuade us that she was right to be mad at the king. And it works. Angelina’s acting is excellent and so I found the rather lackluster Sharlto Copley disappointing (although in truth he didn’t have much of a part to play). I don’t know if incessant updating will work with all fairytales, but so far it seems to be going well. (26/08/2014)

Representatives of American studios will probably find my well-intentioned advice unconvincing, but just in case, here you go: When you next want to rehabilitate a fairy tale archvillain, don't skimp and hire a capable screenwriter alongside the cast and crew. I have nothing against alternative stories and different perspectives - I can even accept a gingerbread house being portrayed as a raid by ill-behaved imps destroying an old witch's dwelling, who in a sudden burst of emotion decides to deal with her lack of protein. Just write and film it in a way that makes sense within the context of the fairy tale world and its rules. Unfortunately, Maleficent fails in this aspect. The king, who faces a curse from his only daughter, the queen of the magical world, doesn't have her guarded like his most precious possession by an army of servants, but instead entrusts her upbringing to three clearly inept and quarrelsome fairies - representatives of the world with which he is at war. Nobody watches over the girl, and she regularly meets with the queen of the magical realm without any problems. Except for Maleficent, the other characters are underdeveloped, and in the end, the film relies on traditional Hollywood weapons - set design and special effects. Angelina handles her part with ease, while the other actors don't bring much to the table. I'm somewhat bothered by the visual style that caters to kids and the biggest kitsch enthusiasts. But then again, what can I expect from a family spectacle? Overall impression: 45%. (10/05/2017)

I'm still not riding the new wave of fairy tales with new shifted meanings, but if some of the others are at least as polished as Maleficent, I see great promise. I still don't even watch the Once Upon a Time series, but holy cow, this was delicious! I'm also not a fan of Angelina or the original Disney film. In short, when things go well, they go well. Even Lana's title song is divine here, as well as all the subtle humor combined with the epic. (29/08/2014)

I’ve been looking forward to Maleficent for a long time. Even my girlfriend told me that she would love to see it at the cinema. That was a proof to me that we simply have to go see it and so we did. The result turned out very well. Although it is a digital parade, everything is so honest and beautiful that it can be easily forgiven. Angelina Jolie couldn’t be better. Her character has wonderful mood swings and I enjoyed her feelings like never before. But I also enjoyed the locations to which the Americans put great care. It is an absolutely amazing fantasy world, where it is immediately clear who belongs to whom and what the map of it would probably look like if you decided to draw it. This movie is just like that. It seeks strength in simplicity and I simply enjoyed it. I wouldn’t be angry at all if there were more such fairytales. (10/06/2014)

A very atypical 180 million-dollar budget affair that is shorter and more concise than it may seem at first glance. It is surprising how Robert Stromberg builds it from scratch, going straight to the point, without beating around the bush and letting Angelina Jolie fool around with horns and mischievously giggle to add to it all. Unfortunately, the story suffers quite a bit, so if you manage to catch onto the hackneyed plot and see it through the barrage of visual effects and camera flyovers and zooms like in Avatar, you will see that it is very generic and visually polished – maybe even excessively so. Some of the visual effects are aweful, and there’s also the madman Sharlto Copley. (20/02/2015)