Maleficent
I went ot see Maleficent with a friend today. IT WAS AWESOME. My friend and I were alone in the theater, so we could talk to each other as much as we wanted, which was pretty cool.
Maybe I should say that I haven't really watched Sleeping beauty since I was three, so all I really remembered was the scene with the dargon at the end, and this one snapshot of Maleficent talking to her bird while it perches on her staff. So i can't say how well it matches up with the original cartoon, but the friend I watched it with thought it was great too and that some of the shots very closely mirrored the ones from the cartoon.
I loved the shots of Maleficent flying and the scenery in the Moors and the CGI in general. (Balthazar was indeed clasically handsome.)
I loved the progression of Maleficent's character, from wide-eyed child to dark queen to fairy godmother. Her feelings about humans follow the same arc: 'omg I've never seen a human before!' to 'humans are the worst' to 'I guess some humans are okay'. So did her wardrobe: brown/earth-y tones to black to earth-y tones again.
I liked her early friendship with Stephan, although I knew as soon as he said he wanted to live in the castle that things would go horribly wrong, and they did. (Incidentally, both me and my friend picked up on the rapey undertones of the wings-cutting scene. He's the one who brought it up in conversation later and we both agreed that given the original fairytale, it was very likely intentional.)
Following this incident, Maleficent becomes consumed by hatred and revenge. The scene where she wakes up to find her wings gone make me wince so hard. The staff is explained by her making it when she has trouble walking, but no, duh, that must have completely fucked with her balance and center of gravity, not to mention the pain.
So then Maleficient makes a friend. No, she literally makes herself a friend by turning a raven into a human. The raven is less than pleased by this turn of events ("What did you do to my beautiful self?" / "Would you rather I had let them kill you?" / "Yes!"), but still decides to stick around Maleficent, supposedly because he owes her now that she saved his life. I think Diaval thought it might be fun to hang around her, given that he was flying around her just before.
Maleficent tells him she needs him to be her wings and suddenly I wanted all the friendship fic between those two. (And nobody was surprised.)
Stefan marries the princess and becomes King and then has a daughter. Maleficent shows up at the christening, interrupting one of the fairies' blessing (that never comes up again, btw). She curses baby Aurora and makes Stefan make her to undo the curse and she adds a true-love's-kiss clause to it.
Then Stefan makes a series of completely stupid decisions (gather all the spindles and burn them, yet store them in a room for 16+ years; sending Aurora to live with the fairies...), but Stefan is more than a few crayons short of a crayon box. His is a box with only one crayon in it and that crayon is a pair of wings.
Dolores Umbridge as the Pink Fairy was a touch of brilliance and I loved Maleficent trolling the fairies by making it rain inside their house. I also loved that even though Maleficent told Diaval to take care of Aurora, he a) seemed to want to do it anyway and b) actually cared for her (as seen when he hides his eyes with his wing when she falls off the cliff).
I loved the first meeting between Aurora and Maleficent, when Aurora calls Maleficent her fairy godmother and says her shadow followed her around (enter Diaval in the frame) and that Maleficent pretty much goes along with it. This is probably the curse's influence, at least in oart, because Maleficent did say that Aurora would be beloved by all who met her until she was 16.
The mudfight scene was so so fun, especially Diaval's face when Maleficent gets mud on his face.
There's something really cathartic about seeing someone get better from depression with help from friends.
I loved the bit where Diaval is pissed because Maleficent turned him into a dog, because it was hilarious. As was the bit, I can remeber when, when Maleficent turns Diaval into a man midflight and he almost falls on his face. There's actually some great comedy in this movie.
The moment when Maleficent tries to undo the curse and fails was both heartbreaking and awesomely shot.
Phillip is such a dork. And gets lost very easily, apparently. Also, where's his entourage?
I felt so bad for Aurora when she learns that not only did her aunties lie to her all her life, but so did Maleficent. AND THEN the first thing her father does is lock her up in her room. A+ parenting.
Then the curse takes effect, essentially by moving things and people around until the fatal fingerprick happens. At thispoint, Maleficent and Diaval are dragging an unconscious Phillip around to have him wake Aurora up as soon as possible. This Diaval's idea, because he's unconvinced by Maleficent's assertion that true love does not exist.
I loved loved loved the moment when Maleficent tells Diaval he doesn't have to come with her because it's not his fight and Diaval goes anyway.
They wake Phillip up inside the castle, something he's completly unperturbed by. he does feel awkward kissing Aurora, but finally does it after the pixies keep pressuring him. It doesn't work, because, like he said so himself, "[he's] only known her for ten minutes".
Then Maleficent enters the room when the pixies and Phillip are out of the picture and makes a speech about missing Aurora's smile. She kisses Aurora's forehead, which leads to Aurora waking up and Diaval commenting "No truer love" with a look on his face that makes me think he planned the whole thing.
Then there's the superbadass fight scene, where Maleficent uses her last magical forces while she's trapped under an iron net to turn Diaval into a dragon, Aurora frees Maleficent's wings and Stefan dies.
And then happy ending! Aurora gets crowned queen of both kingdoms and Maleficent gets to fly around again with gorgeous visuals, but unlike the last time we saw her do these kind of flying acrobatics, she has a friend ather side.
Ultimately, I think it's a story about friendship and a woman finding her way out of depression. It is super great and really pretty. You should watch it, even if you know nothing about the Disney cartoon, like me.
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/41854.html and has
comments over there.
Maybe I should say that I haven't really watched Sleeping beauty since I was three, so all I really remembered was the scene with the dargon at the end, and this one snapshot of Maleficent talking to her bird while it perches on her staff. So i can't say how well it matches up with the original cartoon, but the friend I watched it with thought it was great too and that some of the shots very closely mirrored the ones from the cartoon.
I loved the shots of Maleficent flying and the scenery in the Moors and the CGI in general. (Balthazar was indeed clasically handsome.)
I loved the progression of Maleficent's character, from wide-eyed child to dark queen to fairy godmother. Her feelings about humans follow the same arc: 'omg I've never seen a human before!' to 'humans are the worst' to 'I guess some humans are okay'. So did her wardrobe: brown/earth-y tones to black to earth-y tones again.
I liked her early friendship with Stephan, although I knew as soon as he said he wanted to live in the castle that things would go horribly wrong, and they did. (Incidentally, both me and my friend picked up on the rapey undertones of the wings-cutting scene. He's the one who brought it up in conversation later and we both agreed that given the original fairytale, it was very likely intentional.)
Following this incident, Maleficent becomes consumed by hatred and revenge. The scene where she wakes up to find her wings gone make me wince so hard. The staff is explained by her making it when she has trouble walking, but no, duh, that must have completely fucked with her balance and center of gravity, not to mention the pain.
So then Maleficient makes a friend. No, she literally makes herself a friend by turning a raven into a human. The raven is less than pleased by this turn of events ("What did you do to my beautiful self?" / "Would you rather I had let them kill you?" / "Yes!"), but still decides to stick around Maleficent, supposedly because he owes her now that she saved his life. I think Diaval thought it might be fun to hang around her, given that he was flying around her just before.
Maleficent tells him she needs him to be her wings and suddenly I wanted all the friendship fic between those two. (And nobody was surprised.)
Stefan marries the princess and becomes King and then has a daughter. Maleficent shows up at the christening, interrupting one of the fairies' blessing (that never comes up again, btw). She curses baby Aurora and makes Stefan make her to undo the curse and she adds a true-love's-kiss clause to it.
Then Stefan makes a series of completely stupid decisions (gather all the spindles and burn them, yet store them in a room for 16+ years; sending Aurora to live with the fairies...), but Stefan is more than a few crayons short of a crayon box. His is a box with only one crayon in it and that crayon is a pair of wings.
Dolores Umbridge as the Pink Fairy was a touch of brilliance and I loved Maleficent trolling the fairies by making it rain inside their house. I also loved that even though Maleficent told Diaval to take care of Aurora, he a) seemed to want to do it anyway and b) actually cared for her (as seen when he hides his eyes with his wing when she falls off the cliff).
I loved the first meeting between Aurora and Maleficent, when Aurora calls Maleficent her fairy godmother and says her shadow followed her around (enter Diaval in the frame) and that Maleficent pretty much goes along with it. This is probably the curse's influence, at least in oart, because Maleficent did say that Aurora would be beloved by all who met her until she was 16.
The mudfight scene was so so fun, especially Diaval's face when Maleficent gets mud on his face.
There's something really cathartic about seeing someone get better from depression with help from friends.
I loved the bit where Diaval is pissed because Maleficent turned him into a dog, because it was hilarious. As was the bit, I can remeber when, when Maleficent turns Diaval into a man midflight and he almost falls on his face. There's actually some great comedy in this movie.
The moment when Maleficent tries to undo the curse and fails was both heartbreaking and awesomely shot.
Phillip is such a dork. And gets lost very easily, apparently. Also, where's his entourage?
I felt so bad for Aurora when she learns that not only did her aunties lie to her all her life, but so did Maleficent. AND THEN the first thing her father does is lock her up in her room. A+ parenting.
Then the curse takes effect, essentially by moving things and people around until the fatal fingerprick happens. At thispoint, Maleficent and Diaval are dragging an unconscious Phillip around to have him wake Aurora up as soon as possible. This Diaval's idea, because he's unconvinced by Maleficent's assertion that true love does not exist.
I loved loved loved the moment when Maleficent tells Diaval he doesn't have to come with her because it's not his fight and Diaval goes anyway.
They wake Phillip up inside the castle, something he's completly unperturbed by. he does feel awkward kissing Aurora, but finally does it after the pixies keep pressuring him. It doesn't work, because, like he said so himself, "[he's] only known her for ten minutes".
Then Maleficent enters the room when the pixies and Phillip are out of the picture and makes a speech about missing Aurora's smile. She kisses Aurora's forehead, which leads to Aurora waking up and Diaval commenting "No truer love" with a look on his face that makes me think he planned the whole thing.
Then there's the superbadass fight scene, where Maleficent uses her last magical forces while she's trapped under an iron net to turn Diaval into a dragon, Aurora frees Maleficent's wings and Stefan dies.
And then happy ending! Aurora gets crowned queen of both kingdoms and Maleficent gets to fly around again with gorgeous visuals, but unlike the last time we saw her do these kind of flying acrobatics, she has a friend ather side.
Ultimately, I think it's a story about friendship and a woman finding her way out of depression. It is super great and really pretty. You should watch it, even if you know nothing about the Disney cartoon, like me.
This entry was originally posted at http://dhampyresa.dreamwidth.org/41854.html and has
comments over there.