Seriously though: the ideas were good, the acting was good for most of it. The execution of this movie though? Not so much.
The Special Effects of the Moor in Daylight... while not terrible, they weren't good either. At night, they were beautiful, and subtlety was well used. In the daylight, however? It looked straight out of an animated film. Shadows didn't fall right on the actors ( Compare Prince Philip to the little troll thingoes at the end), and the flying was not very well done on the closeups. But this stuff is forgivable if other things go right, and the remainder of the effects are fairly well done as well.
Fortunately, the acting was good for almost all of the movie. I credit Ellie Fanning for giving us the perfect image of innocence, and Angelina Jolie for portraying Maleficent magnificently. But... Ms Jolie's performance wasn't without fault. While she did do the best out of all the actors, she also made the biggest error: her "Screeching" after losing the wings? Ow. My. Ears. Not a good sight from a veteran actor. Other than that though, a brilliant job done.
However, the story: Where do I begin? They traded out story telling for action. I didn't mind so much during the battle against the first king, but the final battle? It was merely there for the sake of it, and didn't add anything to what could have been a brilliant story. I mean, seriously, Aurora could have jumped in at any moment, and diffused the entire situation, or Maleficent could have told Stefan that Aurora was alive and that the curse had been broken. Terrible waste of a scene that could have determined whether Stefan's love for his daughter was real or superficial, or whether his anger at Maleficent would still cloud his judgement.
I was also looking for more moments between Maleficent and Aurora, more C Mo H's. Instead, everything has been... glossed over, condensed. It didn't do well for the story. The Narration that appeared didn't help matters. Everything lacked substance, and while acting can make or break a movie, it can't save a movie that lacks substance.
And finally, a little bit of nitpicking, but that armour at the end looked ridiculous.
While the movie isn't terrible, and the acting was mostly spot on, this was very poor execution of what could have been a masterpiece. 2/5 stars.
They wasted a perfectly good plot.
Seriously though: the ideas were good, the acting was good for most of it. The execution of this movie though? Not so much.
The Special Effects of the Moor in Daylight... while not terrible, they weren't good either. At night, they were beautiful, and subtlety was well used. In the daylight, however? It looked straight out of an animated film. Shadows didn't fall right on the actors ( Compare Prince Philip to the little troll thingoes at the end), and the flying was not very well done on the closeups. But this stuff is forgivable if other things go right, and the remainder of the effects are fairly well done as well.
Fortunately, the acting was good for almost all of the movie. I credit Ellie Fanning for giving us the perfect image of innocence, and Angelina Jolie for portraying Maleficent magnificently. But... Ms Jolie's performance wasn't without fault. While she did do the best out of all the actors, she also made the biggest error: her "Screeching" after losing the wings? Ow. My. Ears. Not a good sight from a veteran actor. Other than that though, a brilliant job done.
However, the story: Where do I begin? They traded out story telling for action. I didn't mind so much during the battle against the first king, but the final battle? It was merely there for the sake of it, and didn't add anything to what could have been a brilliant story. I mean, seriously, Aurora could have jumped in at any moment, and diffused the entire situation, or Maleficent could have told Stefan that Aurora was alive and that the curse had been broken. Terrible waste of a scene that could have determined whether Stefan's love for his daughter was real or superficial, or whether his anger at Maleficent would still cloud his judgement.
I was also looking for more moments between Maleficent and Aurora, more C Mo H's. Instead, everything has been... glossed over, condensed. It didn't do well for the story. The Narration that appeared didn't help matters. Everything lacked substance, and while acting can make or break a movie, it can't save a movie that lacks substance.
And finally, a little bit of nitpicking, but that armour at the end looked ridiculous.
While the movie isn't terrible, and the acting was mostly spot on, this was very poor execution of what could have been a masterpiece. 2/5 stars.