Angelina Jolie dons her horns again as she returns to play the classic Disney villain Maleficent in “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.”
Joining her and returning actress Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora is Michelle Pfeiffer as Queen Ingrith.
The movie begins with a narrator explaining a short re-cap of what happened in the previous film. The narrator explains as people were spreading the story of “Sleeping Beauty,” they made Maleficent to be the villain when she was actually the heroine.
Aurora is now the Queen of the Moors, the forest where all the magical creatures live in. Prince Phillip, played by Harris Dickinson, proposes to Aurora after five years of being together and goes to tell his parents the great news.
King John, played by Robert Lindsay, is elated with the announcement, whereas Queen Ingrith is too busy practicing her aim with a crossbow to pay attention. The parents suggest to Phillip that he invite Aurora and Maleficent over for dinner to get better acquainted.
At the dinner, all hell breaks loose and Maleficent gets accused of cursing King John into a deep sleep. Sound familiar?
As Maleficent flies out of their castle, she is struck by an iron bullet and crashes into the sea. A mysterious figure rescues her from the water and flies her to an underground cavern where multiple fairies like her dwell.
This is where the movie takes a slow turn.
The audience is then thrown into a historical tour explaining more of the horned-fairies’ past. While that is happening, Aurora is having to change her mannerisms and style to appease Queen Ingrith. After Aurora notices things don’t seem what they’re supposed to be, she tries to stop the queen before it’s too late.
With an action-packed battle scene and two tearful parts, this movie has its moments of being great but falls a little flat. The film is available to view in 3D, which makes a lot of scenes nauseating and overdone with the effects.
The story is muddled throughout by not giving that much of a backstory for Pfeiffer’s character and relying too much on artificial visuals. The ending doesn’t leave much to tease for a potential third film, but Disney does love money so who knows for sure.
