“Maleficent” tells the back-story of the villainess from Disney’s 1959 animated film “Sleeping Beauty,” to show that she had reasons for her actions and that she is a good person. The horned, pale-skinned evildoer cloaked in black begins life as a spry fairy soaring across the beautiful land. She plays with the woodland and river creatures and befriends a human boy named Stefan; they fall in love even though fairies and humans are not supposed to be together. Years later as an adult, Stefan (Sharlto Copley) betrays her trust by cutting off her wings to prove his courage to the king. He leaves her stranded and wounded in the woods, crying in the dark alone. Jolie commits to her performance and tries to sell the fantastical situations.
Stefan becomes king, and the film then picks up the story of “Sleeping Beauty.” Maleficent infiltrates the christening of the king’s firstborn child and declares that on her 16th birthday the girl will prick her finger on the needle of a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep that can only be broken by true love’s kiss. The king has his daughter whisked away and puts her under the protection of three fairies: Knotgrass (Imelda Staunton), Flittle (Lesley Manville), and Thistletwit (Juno Temple). Maleficent watches Aurora (Elle Fanning) grow, and she grows to regret her decision. She must fight against her former love King Stefan, her own curse she cast, and her inner demons.
Just about nothing is right about this miscalculated, bombastic fantasy film. It is the feature film debut of Robert Stromberg, who was the production designer for “Alice in Wonderland” (2010) and “Oz: The Great and Powerful.” The film suffers from a fundamental problem that those other films have: There is way too much CGI. The visual design is a sickly, candy-colored assault on the eyes. Being drowned in glaring, garish colors makes it hard for the audience to believe in the world the filmmakers are trying to create. A fantasy world can be a place of unbelievable sights, but it has to have some tactile foundation to begin with. CGI makes up so much of what is on screen that it dwarfs the characters and, thusly, their predicaments.
The film is one where every moment and line of dialogue is only about propelling the plot forward. There is no real narrative complexity or character development. The whole conceit of the film does not fundamentally work because this villainess is turned into a concerned, conflicted fairy. For most of the film, she is not deliciously evil but disappointingly dull. She is a cold-hearted monster who resorts to shenanigans, such as having it rain inside Aurora’s hideaway cottage.
Since the film is trying to explain Maleficent’s side of the story, the fairy-tale qualities of the original story are stretched out to logically explain plot points, such as her staff, which she uses to help her walk after having her wings cut off. When she waltzes into the castle and bestows the infant with the curse, the build-up and reasoning for her actions makes the particulars of the curse seem arbitrary and ludicrous. In a magical fairy tale, the parameters of the plot fly, but when the “true” story of a character is revealed, the lyrical nature of the story does not gel.
What is left is one loud, violent scene after another, briefly interrupted with silly scenes of the trio of annoying fairies and Aurora flitting around the woods with CGI creatures. The action in the film is always turned up to 11 with big, loud, thundering violence that has no impact or intensity. The film climaxes with a big fight where Maleficent dons a skin-tight black outfit and flies around the castle as the knights fight a fire-breathing dragon.
One of the few aspects of the film that does work is Jolie, although a large part of that is just how much she looks the part in costume and Rick Baker’s makeup. Jolie chews the nonexistent scenery as best she can, but it is hard not to notice the giant paycheck sticking out of her cloak pocket.