The early word on "Malificent" is...

[FettFan]

I enjoyed it except for two things.

1. The CGI was too cartoonish and fake. Surely, Disney could have thrown another couple of million to Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create all of the inhabitants of the Moor?

vs.

Practical effects are becoming a lost art.

2. Maleficent is too short. It clocks in at a little over an hour and a half....because they cut out too many important things:
- The Queen only gets one scene in the movie. After Aurora's christening, she disappears completely, only to be mentioned once as being very sick,

Spoiler

while Stefan descends into madness. Hey, I have an idea....how about making her actually matter to the story? Maybe if Stefan were to blame Maleficent for the illness before he starts muttering to himself? I'm pretty sure that happened, but was cut out in post.

As it stands, the Queen's only role is to give birth.

- So....Stefan knows that

Spoiler

iron can burn faeries

so he has builds a great big forge that even Mordor would be proud of, and has his forgers working 24/7 to build something. Yet when the final battle takes place....all he has is a suit of armor, a few Roman-style shields, and what amounts to an iron fishnet.
Seriously? What the hell did he have them building? I was expecting medieval Panzer tanks or something.

 

[stevehousse]

I enjoyed it except for two things.

1. The CGI was too cartoonish and fake. Surely, Disney could have thrown another couple of million to Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create all of the inhabitants of the Moor?

vs.

Practical effects are becoming a lost art.

2. Maleficent is too short. It clocks in at a little over an hour and a half....because they cut out too many important things:
- The Queen only gets one scene in the movie. After Aurora's christening, she disappears completely, only to be mentioned once as being very sick,

Spoiler

while Stefan descends into madness. Hey, I have an idea....how about making her actually matter to the story? Maybe if Stefan were to blame Maleficent for the illness before he starts muttering to himself? I'm pretty sure that happened, but was cut out in post.

As it stands, the Queen's only role is to give birth.

- So....Stefan knows that

Spoiler

iron can burn faeries

so he has builds a great big forge that even Mordor would be proud of, and has his forgers working 24/7 to build something. Yet when the final battle takes place....all he has is a suit of armor, a few Roman-style shields, and what amounts to an iron fishnet.
Seriously? What the hell did he have them building? I was expecting medieval Panzer tanks or something.

Agree with u on the effects, the fairies bothered me wen they were tiny...

It is a kids movie after all. Were u expecting a 3 hour LOTR type movie? I was fine with the movie length...

 

[FettFan]

Agree with u on the effects, the fairies bothered me wen they were tiny...

It is a kids movie after all. Were u expecting a 3 hour LOTR type movie? I was fine with the movie length...

The length wasn't a problem....the fact that so much was missing was. Give us an additional 30 minutes to help build the non-Maleficent characters.



Also...I'm pretty sure they turned the faeries into the Sanderson Sisters.

The temperamental ginger leader, the slightly-dim brunette, and the Sara Jessica Parker.

 

[Animaniac93-98]

Also...I'm pretty sure they turned the faeries into the Sanderson Sisters.

When it rained in the cottage I was very much reminded of "the burning rain of death".

 

[Animaniac93-98]

I'm expecting there to be a number of deleted scenes on the DVD. Hopefully some fan cut will be put together.

 

[BuddyThomas]

I enjoyed it except for two things.

1. The CGI was too cartoonish and fake. Surely, Disney could have thrown another couple of million to Jim Henson's Creature Shop to create all of the inhabitants of the Moor?

vs.

Practical effects are becoming a lost art.

2. Maleficent is too short. It clocks in at a little over an hour and a half....because they cut out too many important things:
- The Queen only gets one scene in the movie. After Aurora's christening, she disappears completely, only to be mentioned once as being very sick,

Spoiler

while Stefan descends into madness. Hey, I have an idea....how about making her actually matter to the story? Maybe if Stefan were to blame Maleficent for the illness before he starts muttering to himself? I'm pretty sure that happened, but was cut out in post.

As it stands, the Queen's only role is to give birth.

- So....Stefan knows that

Spoiler

iron can burn faeries

so he has builds a great big forge that even Mordor would be proud of, and has his forgers working 24/7 to build something. Yet when the final battle takes place....all he has is a suit of armor, a few Roman-style shields, and what amounts to an iron fishnet.
Seriously? What the hell did he have them building? I was expecting medieval Panzer tanks or something.

Too short? If it was one second longer I was going to claw my own eyes out of my head and toss them at the screen.

 

[Magenta Panther]

The length wasn't a problem....the fact that so much was missing was. Give us an additional 30 minutes to help build the non-Maleficent characters.



Also...I'm pretty sure they turned the faeries into the Sanderson Sisters.

The temperamental ginger leader, the slightly-dim brunette, and the Sara Jessica Parker.

Aw, man, look what they did to Flora, Fauna and Meriweather! Bleh!

 

[CaptainShortty]

Finally saw it last night and was overall pleased with the results. It was different than I was expecting although I'm not sure what type of expectations I had going into it. Personally I'm not a Jolie fan but I thought that she acted the part very well.

 

[Sped2424]

I liked it! I will say certain elements of the film really surprised me, but overall I thought jolie was a delight to watch start to finish. She really was perfect for maleficent, to me she is on par with johnny depp as sparrow. Both were meant to play those characters.

 

[BigTxEars]

We saw it Wednesday at DTD, it was a big hit with our group. I was reminded of the Narnia films to a degree, but darker overall.

We saw Fantasmic latter that night, two version of Malificent in 7 hours

It's good to see Disney doing live action versions of the classic characters.

 

[216bruce]

The best, most intelligent and rational exploration of the movie that I've read. And from "Forbes" no less.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2014/06/05/why-disneys-maleficent-matters/

 

[Skip]

The best, most intelligent and rational exploration of the movie that I've read. And from "Forbes" no less.
http://www.forbes.com/sites/jordanshapiro/2014/06/05/why-disneys-maleficent-matters/

Good lord... what a load.

I'm sorry, I study film, and all of this is largely projection of what the writer wants the film to be. It isn't. The castle at the beginning? It's a gimmick and an easy way to transition into the story faster. The actual WDS logo appearing at the end of the credits isn't a storytelling statement, it's a branding requirement and industry standard. They didn't layer the themes of motherhood over what the author is describing to "hide" it... it happened because what the author describes barely exists, and the script is a muddled mess. Half of what's being described in this piece is never thoroughly explored or even really implied in the actual film. It conveniently ignores the film's awful dialogue, poorly defined and inconsistent characterization, middling acting (sans Jolie who again chews the scenery admirably), terrible special effects and overall painfully weak story.

If you all enjoyed the film, then that's fine, all the more power to you... but from most standards of film it's a mess and largely inert.

 

[Sped2424]

Good lord... what a load.

I'm sorry, I study film, and all of this is largely projection of what the writer wants the film to be. It isn't. The castle at the beginning? It's a gimmick and an easy way to transition into the story faster. The actual WDS logo appearing at the end of the credits isn't a storytelling statement, it's a branding requirement and industry standard. They didn't layer the themes of motherhood over what the author is describing to "hide" it... it happened because what the author describes barely exists, and the script is a muddled mess. Half of what's being described in this piece is never thoroughly explored or even really implied in the actual film. It conveniently ignores the film's awful dialogue, poorly defined and inconsistent characterization, middling acting (sans Jolie who again chews the scenery admirably), terrible special effects and overall painfully weak story.

If you all enjoyed the film, then that's fine, all the more power to you... but from most standards of film it's a mess and largely inert.

Gotta agree with a lot of this, I liked the film but at the same time it wasn't the movie I thought it was going to be. This sort of juggernaut fairy tale brought to life. But I feel the writer had a lot of fluff in that article without much backing.

 

[Jabbas]

I really liked it. I thought Angelina did a great job but I felt Aurora was really under developed and I didn't care for the actress that played her.

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

I enjoyed it except for two things.
- So....Stefan knows that

Spoiler

iron can burn faeries

so he has builds a great big forge that even Mordor would be proud of, and has his forgers working 24/7 to build something. Yet when the final battle takes place....all he has is a suit of armor, a few Roman-style shields, and what amounts to an iron fishnet.
Seriously? What the hell did he have them building? I was expecting medieval Panzer tanks or something.

Did you not notice the wall of iron thorns she had to work her way through to get in the castle? Not that it was particularly effective, but it would've required a significant amount of metalwork.

 

[FettFan]

Did you not notice the wall of iron thorns she had to work her way through to get in the castle? Not that it was particularly effective, but it would've required a significant amount of metalwork.

By "wall of thorns" did yo mean the one room with spikes in it that she was able to pass through within ten seconds? Because truth be told, she had more difficulty getting through the giant thorn fence that she made herself to keep the humans out.

The problem is the disconnect between the two scenes. Perhaps if they would have showed the forgers actually constructing it, hurriedly trying to complete it in time for Aurora's birthday (maybe with one or two unlucky minions accidentally falling to their death in their haste to appease the king's madness), it would have been more effective for the audience.

But no. We don't even see the forgers....we see one foreman, and its very briefly (and very poorly) implied that the iron works are going by the red glow from under the bridge and a brief bit of dialogue that the guys are working themselves 24/7.

 

[GeneralKnowledge]

By "wall of thorns" did yo mean the one room with spikes in it that she was able to pass through within ten seconds? Because truth be told, she had more difficulty getting through the giant thorn fence that she made herself to keep the humans out.

The problem is the disconnect between the two scenes. Perhaps if they would have showed the forgers actually constructing it, hurriedly trying to complete it in time for Aurora's birthday (maybe with one or two unlucky minions accidentally falling to their death in their haste to appease the king's madness), it would have been more effective for the audience.

But no. We don't even see the forgers....we see one foreman, and its very briefly (and very poorly) implied that the iron works are going by the red glow from under the bridge and a brief bit of dialogue that the guys are working themselves 24/7.

I get your point, it was a bit underdeveloped. I just wanted to make the point that there was more than just some armor and shields being forged.

 

[fractal]

Really wanted to like this movie. Spent my Father's Day afternoon being disappointed. What garbage.

 

[FettFan]

You know what's really disappointing?

When I watch a movie and KNOW that I could write a better version of it.
This, Oz, Burtonland, etc.

I mean, I'm no George RR Martin or Joss Whedon, but dammit I know how to tell a story from all the years of reading Crichton and King.

 

[jdmdisney99]

Yeha, it was different...but it was just not very good. The CGI just killed me and I felt no characters were really developed except for Maleficent. I also agree it seemed really short. I wish they would just leave their classic fairy tales alone. They are already works of art, not need to twist it around and milk it. I hope they cancel Cindy. Okay, hear come the spoiler comments...

Spoiler: Spoiler

When Prince Phillip's kiss didn't work, I almost freaked. It was just supposed to be the original film from Maleficent's point of view. Same with her not dying as a dragon. That would have been an emotional ending, if they could have somehow worked that in that Phillip thought she was evil and killed her. It would actually make us care. I honestly didn't care at the end. Woohoo you "united the kingdom"...but you're long lost dad that you just met after 16 years is dead...and so is your mom...you're an orphan...but, ya know, whatever, peace in the kingdom and all. Oh, and while I'm talking about the end, Disney needs to find a new gimmick. Before the movie even started, I said to my friend, "Hey, did you notice that at the end of all recent Disney movies, someone is near-death, but then a loved one cries on them and they live [cough*happily ever after*cough]?" Then it happened again. It's way too predictable Disney. Rant over.

It just wasn't that good, and it was a pointless film. Should have just made an original fairy tale in live-action.