Maleficent

 Released Year: 2014

Directed by Robert Stromberg

Casted by:

Angelina Jolie as Maleficent

Elle Fanning as Princess Aurora

Sharlto Copley as King Stefan

Sam Riley as Diaval

Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, a pink pixie

Juno Temple as Thistlewit, a green pixie

Lesley Manville as Flittle, a blue pixie

Brenton Thwaites as Prince Phillip

 Story:

Maleficent, a powerful fairy, lives in the Moors, a magical forest realm bordering a corrupt human kingdom. As a young girl, she meets and falls in love with a human peasant boy named Stefan, whose affection for Maleficent is overshadowed by his ambition to better his station. As they grow older, the two grow apart, and she becomes protector of the Moors. When King Henry tries to conquer the Moors and obtain its treasures, a grown Maleficent forces him to retreat. Fatally wounded in battle, he declares that whoever kills Maleficent will be named his successor and marry Princess Leila, his only daughter. In response, the grown Stefan visits Maleficent in the Moors, where he drugs her but cannot bring himself to kill her. Instead, Stefan uses an iron chain, which burns fairies, to cut off Maleficent's wings. He then presents them to the king as evidence of her death. Maleficent awakens to find herself wingless. Anguished by Stefan's betrayal, she declares herself Queen of the Moors, forming a dark kingdom with Diaval, a raven to whom she gives human form. He acts as her wings, spy, and confidant.

Sometime later, Diaval informs Maleficent that Stefan, who is now king, is hosting a christening for his newborn daughter, Aurora. Bent on revenge, Maleficent arrives uninvited and curses the infant princess: on her 16th birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, putting her into a deep sleep from which she will never awaken. When Stefan begs for mercy, Maleficent offers an antidote: The curse can be broken by true love's kiss. Stefan sends Aurora to live with a trio of pixies until the day after her 16th birthday, while he destroys all the spinning wheels in the kingdom and hides them in the castle dungeon. He sends his army to find and kill Maleficent, but she surrounds the Moors with an impenetrable wall of thorns.

Despite her initial dislike for Aurora, Maleficent begins to care for the girl when the incompetent pixies inadvertently put her in danger. After a brief meeting with the young Aurora, Maleficent watches over her from afar. When Aurora is 15, she encounters Maleficent and, aware of being watched over, calls her "fairy godmother". Realizing she has grown fond of the princess, Maleficent attempts to revoke the curse, but she cannot. Aurora later meets Prince Philip, and the two are smitten with each other. Diaval suggests that Phillip could be the solution to Maleficent’s curse, by giving her true love's kiss. Maleficent disagrees revealing to Diaval that the reason that she cursed Aurora the way she did is because true love doesn't exist. Unable to share his feelings with Maleficent, Diaval argues that Aurora has the choice to decide her own fate. On the day before Aurora's 16th birthday, Maleficent, hoping to avoid the curse, invites her to live in the Moors. When the pixies inadvertently tell Aurora of her parentage and of Maleficent's true identity, a horrified Aurora runs away to her father's castle.

Meanwhile, King Stefan, mad with paranoia, sits in his castle talking to Maleficent's severed wings, and even refuses to see Queen Leila on her deathbed.

After a brief reunion with Aurora, Stefan locks her away in her room for safety. However, she is drawn by the curse to the dungeon, where a spinning wheel pricks her finger and she falls into a death-like sleep. Intent on saving her, Maleficent abducts Phillip and infiltrates Stefan's castle. Diaval remarks that Stefan has prepared for this moment and if they go in the castle they will never come out alive. Maleficent acknowledges this and asks him not to come, saying it is not his fight. Seemingly offended by this, Diaval decides to stand by her and go anyway. Maleficent and Diaval manage to get Phillip to the three fairies who have him kiss Aurora and break the curse, but Philip's kiss fails. Alone in Aurora's chamber, Maleficent apologizes to Aurora, swears no harm will come to her, kisses her forehead, and breaks the spell, with Maleficent's motherly concern for Aurora constituting true love. Aurora forgives Maleficent and they attempt to leave the castle, but Maleficent is trapped in an iron net and attacked by Stefan and his guards. Maleficent transforms Diaval into a dragon, and he lifts the net off her, but is driven back by the guards. Stefan beats and taunts Maleficent, but before he can kill her, her wings, freed from his chamber by Aurora, fly back to her and reattach themselves. Maleficent overpowers Stefan and carries him onto a tower, but cannot bring herself to kill him. Stefan attempts once more to kill her, and they both fall from the tower. Maleficent is able to break herself free and Stefan falls to his death.

Soon after, Aurora is crowned queen of the human and fairy realms by Maleficent, unifying the two kingdoms, with Philip at her side. Maleficent returns to her role as protector over the kingdoms with Diaval by her side. Maleficent and Diaval fly above the Moors into the sunset.

 L² Scored: 8/10

L² Comment:

Well, I miss this movie last year, kinda sad that time. But after watching the movie now, I don't really feel sad again. Y? Its because its totally different from the Sleeping Beauty (cartoon make in 1959), which I watched so many time! 

First, I won't ever agree Maleficent is somebody good. Second, Wings? Third, the good become the bad or useless (eg: King Stephen, 3 fairies & Prince Philips).

Other than the storyline, this movie actually attracted me, if i never watch Sleeping Beauty before. Love the costume and the magical land. Overall its still ok, but I'm just afraid Walt Disney will continue to make those villains become a good person instead... I can't accept it :p