2014: Week 22: Maleficent

Maleficent

Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Family

Main Players: Angelina Jolie, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley


General Gist: A twist on Sleeping Beauty, from a totally different point of view.

Deb's Take:
I'm a sucker for fairy tales.  I think 2 years ago a handful of fairy tales told from a different point of view flooded the screen.  I liked them, so I figured I would like this one too. 

I have never been a real big fan of Angelina Jolie and her acting abilities.  Whenever I watch her I always just get more of a feeling that she is a presence more than an actor.  She doesn't have many lines in the movies I watch her in.  I was a little nervous she might ruin this one for me.  Luckily, her role required more of a "presence" and not much talking, so she fit it perfectly.  I was impressed with the makeup work on her (or digital work as it may be).  I liked how this played on the fantasy, and told a pretty good back story.  I liked Sam Riley's character, and felt like he was Angelina's other side.  Almost like he had the words she didn't.  Elle Fanning was very princess like.  This movie was quite enjoyable.   I'm not sure how younger kids would do with it however.  I know it's a Disney movie, but a few parts may be on the scary side for those 5 year olds, but all in all it had all the things a good Disney movie needs.

Deb's Rate: Matinee

Tiff's Take:
I too have been enjoying the twists on the old fairy tale classics.  This one had an interesting point of view.  Obviously more depth to it then the original Sleeping Beauty.

I don't necessarily love Angelina Jolie but I don't really dislike her either so I didn't go into this one with as much skepticism as Deb.  And I wasn't really surprised at how well the role fit Jolie.  The other actors were good and got the job done.  Overall, it was a good movie but not sure what demographics it was trying to pull in.  I thought about taking my 6 year old but glad I didn't.  I'm not sure it was "young" enough for her.  And my 9 year old didn't have any interest in seeing it although he probably would have liked it better then he thought.  (Not too princessy)  But as a thirty something women who likes fairy tales it was worth watching.

Tiff's Rate: Matinee

Preview: We both finished the book "The Fault in Our Stars" so we took our posse (ok two others who also finished the book and a few more who didn't read it) with us!