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Disney's "Maleficent"

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RhymeBeat True colors from Eastern Standard Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: In Lesbians with you
True colors
#726: May 28th 2014 at 11:18:09 AM

[up][up][up]. It's WORSE than I thought. It's bit even musical Wicked, where Elphaba CHOOSES to oppose the wizard because it's the right thing to do. Instead it's the worst parts of the book Wicked where Elphaba is victimized over and over and never moves beyond it .(For the record book Elphaba was initially motivated by the same things musical Elphaba was but then gets tortured by the plot for the next two segments of the book).

The Crystal Caverns A bird's gotta sing.
Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#727: May 28th 2014 at 12:04:25 PM

The RT score is currently 69, slightly lower than what my prediction for it was. Considering that it's starting out this low, I'm guessing it'll end up somewhere in the 50s. Or the 40s, if we're lucky.

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lancesolous13 from California Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Dancing with Captain Jack Harkness
#728: May 28th 2014 at 2:39:27 PM

Its at 33% with Top Critics and 58% from All Critics.

My Favorite Review Quote? "Please leave your desire for a well-rounded story in the lockers provided, and keep your arms and legs inside the ride while it is in motion. "

Oh god. I may call up my Hero's Journey/Lit Professor to see if he wants to see this and we'll do lunch and discuss it.

I'm a critical person but I'm a nice guy when you get to know me. Now, I should be writing.
CorrTerek The Permanently Confused from The Bland Line Since: Jul, 2009
The Permanently Confused
#729: May 28th 2014 at 3:44:00 PM

I'm actually kind of horrified that some people are touting this as some sort of feminist/empowerment movie. To borrow from a few of the reviews, they think that a clichéd rape-and-revenge movie where the heroine punishes another woman (and a child, at that!) is feminist and empowering? Where Aurora's mother is essentially sold along with the crown, where the three "good" fairies are bickering idiots? This is empowering?

And regarding Linda Woolverton "saving" Disney, someone needs to recheck animation history. The salvation of Disney is largely due to three films: The Great Mouse Detective, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and The Little Mermaid.

The Great Mouse Detective was a success after the dismal flop that was The Black Cauldron, and convinced Disney's higher-ups that their animation department still had a future. It was released in 1986.

Who Framed Roger Rabbit was a big hit and renewed interest in traditional animation. It was released in 1988.

The Little Mermaid was a smash hit and kicked off what is known as the Disney Renaissance (1989-1999).

Many of Disney's greatest films (including The Lion King, released in 1994 at the height of the Renaissance) were released during this period. These films would likely not have existed had it not been for the three films mentioned above. Linda Woolverton worked on none of them.

edited 28th May '14 3:44:40 PM by CorrTerek

Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#730: May 28th 2014 at 5:08:12 PM

[up][up] So it's in Rotten territory now? YES!

EDIT: Damn, it's down to 52 now. That's lower than Oz and only 1 point above Alice.

edited 28th May '14 5:10:35 PM by Mort08

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Nadir Ice Queen from aaronktj94@gmail.com Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Ice Queen
#731: May 28th 2014 at 6:01:16 PM

[up] Given those statistics, with those three similar movies being on almost equal ground at this point, it's a wonder why they keep trying.

Working on a manga. With pictures! All feedback welcome!
kalel94 Rascal King from Dragonstone Since: Feb, 2011
Rascal King
#732: May 28th 2014 at 6:16:47 PM

[up] They probably make a decent amount of money, and it's easier than coming up with new ideas.

The last hurrah? Nah, I'd do it again.
lancesolous13 from California Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Dancing with Captain Jack Harkness
#733: May 28th 2014 at 6:26:27 PM

[up][up]Because, regardless of the reviews and etc, THEY'RE MAKING A SHIT TON! Who cares if the world complains if they're sill eating it up anyway?

twilight is the same, in a way. Everyone and their mother knows its terrible (hopefully) but it still was a very successful series with the $$$ department.

I'm a critical person but I'm a nice guy when you get to know me. Now, I should be writing.
CharlestonMan Since: Mar, 2013
#734: May 28th 2014 at 6:44:10 PM

Damn. It's at Amazing Spider-Man 2's level on RT at much much less time than it took that film to get there.

I'm actually kind of horrified that some people are touting this as some sort of feminist/empowerment movie.

One sentence can shoot that down: Maleficent doesn't turn into a dragon, a male character does instead.

Seriously, that is such a blatant de-powerment of a powerful female character: her most iconic power at that!

To borrow from a few of the reviews, they think that a clichéd rape-and-revenge movie where the heroine punishes another woman (and a child, at that!) is feminist and empowering? Where Aurora's mother is essentially sold along with the crown, where the three "good" fairies are bickering idiots? This is empowering?

Exactly. Maleficent and the 3 Good Fairies controlled the events of the original movie. Here they are totally reactionary to evil!King Stefan. And original Aurora was bland, but she wasn't a total moron like she is here. It's amazing: a film from the freaking 50s was more feminist than one made today.

edited 28th May '14 6:44:36 PM by CharlestonMan

minespatch Since: Sep, 2009
#735: May 28th 2014 at 8:08:07 PM

Besides the masses buying into Peter Jackson's Fanfic of the Hobbit, this is making me sad. Where is taste to these people? Why can't Gilmero Del Toro's Pinocchio and that French Beauty and the beast come sooner?

lancesolous13 from California Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Dancing with Captain Jack Harkness
#736: May 28th 2014 at 8:10:51 PM

La Belle Et La Bete came out back in February as I recall. Is it getting an English Dub?

I'm a critical person but I'm a nice guy when you get to know me. Now, I should be writing.
TamH70 Since: Nov, 2011 Relationship Status: Faithful to 2D
#737: May 28th 2014 at 10:39:18 PM

[up][up]And you are the arbiter of taste now? Weird. I don't remember voting for you. [lol]

Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#738: May 28th 2014 at 11:01:02 PM

We live in a world where Grown Ups 2 can beat Pacific Rim and Fifty Shades of Grey can be successful. The era of expecting the masses to have taste is dead, if it ever existed to begin with.

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Swanpride Since: Jun, 2013
#739: May 29th 2014 at 12:48:18 AM

There is also the little fact that the original movie is one of the most feminist animated movies out there...in fact, one of the most feminist movies period. It has a mostly female cast (in fact the only guy who is important is Phillip, and his role is on the same level as Aurora's). The actual heroines of the movie are three old woman. In fact, the fate of the whole kingdom is fought out by woman...on the one hand Maleficent, confident and uber-powerful and certainly in no need for any excuse for being how she is and on the other hand Flora, Fauna and Merryweather, who know that they are in a lot of ways no match for Maleficent, but take her on nevertheless, going so far as giving up their own power for nearly 16 years for the sake of one little child. There is no need for an upgrade, especially not for Maleficent.

Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#740: May 29th 2014 at 10:31:15 AM

We have an RT consensus:

Angelina Jolie's magnetic performance outshines Maleficent's dazzling special effects; unfortunately, the movie around them fails to justify all that impressive effort.

Unfortunately, Angie will most likely be all that's needed to draw people in. It's already had a more successful opening than Winter Soldier in the UK. If this does well, don't you just know we're gonna get a slew of crappy Wicked knockoffs?

Also, Film Brain's review is up. He doesn't like it very much, and a lot of his problems are things we were worried about.

edited 29th May '14 10:47:47 AM by Mort08

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LDragon2 Since: Dec, 2011
#741: May 29th 2014 at 12:32:15 PM

Yep, I guess I'll save my money for Edge Of Tomorrow then.

Mort08 Pirate AND writer! from Oklahoma Since: Feb, 2011 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Pirate AND writer!
#742: May 29th 2014 at 12:38:54 PM

It's below 50% now. Huzzah!

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lancesolous13 from California Since: Dec, 2011 Relationship Status: Dancing with Captain Jack Harkness
#743: May 29th 2014 at 1:29:31 PM

[up][up][up]As much as I love the insight that he has, UGH! His incredibly unusual vocal inflections and etc give me a massive headache. I know that sounds incredibly petty, but it really really grinds my gears. I'm not sure why he does it because some videos of his have him speaking perfectly normally so...

Anyway, yeah, I think I'm going to call up my Lit teacher and see if he wants to see the movie and we can discuss it after.

edited 29th May '14 1:38:53 PM by lancesolous13

I'm a critical person but I'm a nice guy when you get to know me. Now, I should be writing.
captainpat Since: Sep, 2010
#744: May 29th 2014 at 2:16:42 PM

Ok, I've heard sleeping beauty called a lot of things but not "most feminist film ever". In fact, it's usually the opposite.

CorrTerek The Permanently Confused from The Bland Line Since: Jul, 2009
The Permanently Confused
#745: May 29th 2014 at 2:17:59 PM

That's because people make the mistake of assuming that the film is about Sleeping Beauty. An understandable mistake, to be sure.

GaryCXJk Wants Captain N for SSBU Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Wants Captain N for SSBU
#746: May 29th 2014 at 2:38:26 PM

Okay, I've just seen the movie, and I have to say, wow.

Wow people, congratulations to the film, for turning a bad-ass motherfucking villain into... whatever the fuck this is.

If you hated the leaked script, this isn't the movie for you.

It's a huge middle finger towards the original movie, Kingdom Hearts and dragons, I'd be surprised it gets any Oscar nominations. Well, aside from the soundtrack, that one was pretty bad-ass.

Now, to be fair, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would, but damn, way to take a shit on the original movie's story, as well as Maleficent's street cred.

Signatures are for lamers.
captainpat Since: Sep, 2010
#747: May 29th 2014 at 2:53:04 PM

[up][up] Well, I wouldn't say it's about the fairies either considering they have no character growth, and all of their actions are to assist Aurora. Everything they do just goes back to Aurora. They're not moving the plot either, that still falls on Phillip.

edited 29th May '14 2:53:30 PM by captainpat

Nadir Ice Queen from aaronktj94@gmail.com Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Ice Queen
#748: May 29th 2014 at 3:31:02 PM

[up][up] Though really, the only thing that seems to be consistently good in movies is the music. Kudos to soundtrack composers.

Working on a manga. With pictures! All feedback welcome!
GaryCXJk Wants Captain N for SSBU Since: Aug, 2009 Relationship Status: Shipping fictional characters
Wants Captain N for SSBU
#749: May 29th 2014 at 3:41:00 PM

Okay, here's a more elaborate review, to give some better insight.

The two biggest problem this movie has are Maleficent and Angelina Jolie. Maleficent has the reputation of being one of the most iconic villains in Disney history, and one of the few from the early animated canon that is named. This sets up expectations. On top of that is a high profile actress, one that can do so much more.

Both should give something to improve the film, yet all they do is set an unreasonably high expectation. But here's the problem we have. If both factors are just that good, it wouldn't really matter that much to the film, right? And this is where it turns from nostalgia to something that might just kill this movie.

Without Maleficent, without Angelina Jolie, heck with just the acting talents, which range from not bad to pretty good most of the time, this movie still falls flat. This movie is a villain movie, yet it isn't. Without spoiling anything, it does exactly what you think it will. From the first few moments in this film, you knew she'd be evil, yet at the halfway mark it's really clear she's not so bad a fairy after all. Everything is predictable, the clues are there wide open.

Then we have the blatant morality flip. Good is bad, bad is good. Stefan was a huge dick, I have to hand that, and overall he was fairly decently written, I mean, the acting was better than the character, but still, god, the decisions he made were just to the point of being retarded. And yes, he did do something right, but still. But really, just the whole message in the beginning, humans are bad, they ruin nature with their greed.

I don't know, man. Even if this movie wasn't about Maleficent, even if Angelina Jolie was replaced with an equally tallented and charismatic yet more obscure actress, the story was just too bad. And that's a fucking shame.

Pistaccio out.

Signatures are for lamers.
Nadir Ice Queen from aaronktj94@gmail.com Since: Jul, 2009 Relationship Status: Maxing my social links
Ice Queen
#750: May 29th 2014 at 3:50:16 PM

humans are bad, they ruin nature with their greed.

Just curious. Is there ever a time where that kind of environmentalist thing ever been translated well into a movie conflict?

edited 29th May '14 3:50:40 PM by Nadir

Working on a manga. With pictures! All feedback welcome!

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