Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (2019)
I feel no shame in saying that I am one of the few people to actually really enjoy the original Maleficent movie, sure it was nothing overtly amazing but especially coming out at a time before we were swamped with bad Disney live-action remake after bad Disney live-action remake I thought the idea to redefine this story and explore it from a different angle was decently intriguing and I was behind what they were selling. Now, this didn't mean though that I was craving a sequel at all. Despite enjoying the original I had no excitement for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil which is why it took me so long to finally get myself to go to the theater to see the film but out of my enjoyment for the first film I finally made myself go and all I can say is yikes. This movie started decently but quickly went downhill becoming a real mess of a movie more than I could have ever imagined.

First though the positives, I still really like the world this takes place in. Especially in the beginning in a way that Disney could only the world does feel magical in the same way that Disneyland does. In fact, I easily could see multiple of these sets be in a Disneyland ride, there is a sense of awe and wonder that comes to some of these environments that for some reason really grabbed me despite none of them being anything revolutionary or new. The production quality is also rather strong between the costumes by Ellen Mirojnick and the production design itself by Patrick Tatopoulos. These elements are not only grand but due to being real add another sense of magic to this world, so many Disney movies are flooded with CGI (including the one I am reviewing right now) that takes me out of the world and to have some really impressive physical set pieces just felt nice. Mixed with the costumes from Aladdin earlier this year it is clear that despite all the advancements they want to make with CGI and visual effects the most impressive parts of these live-action remakes are the physical elements where the magic of the world can truly shine.
Like I said though that is a small part of this movie, per usual for Disney at this point there is a shit ton of CGI and my god is a lot of it bad. Quite frankly there are effects in this movie that look unfinished, they stick out like a sore thumb as it seems the weakest attempt possible to fit them into the world and the CGI set-pieces has been made. Luckily for the visual effects team, I doubt many will have the awareness to really judge most of the effects in the film as they are too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on most of the time. The first two-thirds of this movie are bland at best as they set up one of the weakest villains in recent memory and go down a very traditional route of storytelling that lacks any inspiration or spirit. Then the third act hits, I kid you not but this might have the craziest third act of any movie this year which is saying a lot considering Serenity also came out this year. It is off the walls batshit insane as deaths happen around every corner and people transform into huge birds, and just everything else you can imagine goes down. It is just incredible to think about how wild the meetings deciding the third act of this film must have been.
Like I said though that is a small part of this movie, per usual for Disney at this point there is a shit ton of CGI and my god is a lot of it bad. Quite frankly there are effects in this movie that look unfinished, they stick out like a sore thumb as it seems the weakest attempt possible to fit them into the world and the CGI set-pieces has been made. Luckily for the visual effects team, I doubt many will have the awareness to really judge most of the effects in the film as they are too busy trying to figure out what the hell is going on most of the time. The first two-thirds of this movie are bland at best as they set up one of the weakest villains in recent memory and go down a very traditional route of storytelling that lacks any inspiration or spirit. Then the third act hits, I kid you not but this might have the craziest third act of any movie this year which is saying a lot considering Serenity also came out this year. It is off the walls batshit insane as deaths happen around every corner and people transform into huge birds, and just everything else you can imagine goes down. It is just incredible to think about how wild the meetings deciding the third act of this film must have been.

Yet despite the surprising amount of death and tragedy that comes from the last act of the film it never feels like there is an emotional weight to any of it. In the same scene that a major death takes place characters will easily move on and never take a moment to feel even a sliver of bad for what they have seen or endured. The characters in this film are completely emotionally dead which makes no sense considering how they embrace dark and frankly disturbing ideas in the third act mainly with the deaths of some major characters. Though this movie entirely also makes little to no sense, its as if the people writing this movie didn't see the original Maleficent and was just guessing what happened in the last movie which could be the case considering two new writers join Linda Woolverton in writing this screenplay. From the actual logic of how the villain conducts their evil plan to the relationship between Maleficent and Aurora which was easily the best part of the original movie, this film throws away the ideas and literal plot points of the first movie to make way for their dull and boring ideas of a plot.
I went in expecting nothing and even then Maleficent: Mistress of Evil amazed me with how incompetent it could be at times. Past just being a horrendous sequel that throws away the best parts of the last film and ignores the literal plot of the first movie it creates one of the most boring and drawn out plots of the year that was honestly a suffer to sit through. Yet I am so happy I didn't walk out as I would have missed the absolutely batshit insane third act that honestly doesn't even feel real at times. The costumes are great and the production design is solid but past that this movie is just terrible. Another negative mark for Disney who has easily had their worst year when it came to their live-action slate of films making me lose any excitement or hope I had for their remakes coming into the year.
I went in expecting nothing and even then Maleficent: Mistress of Evil amazed me with how incompetent it could be at times. Past just being a horrendous sequel that throws away the best parts of the last film and ignores the literal plot of the first movie it creates one of the most boring and drawn out plots of the year that was honestly a suffer to sit through. Yet I am so happy I didn't walk out as I would have missed the absolutely batshit insane third act that honestly doesn't even feel real at times. The costumes are great and the production design is solid but past that this movie is just terrible. Another negative mark for Disney who has easily had their worst year when it came to their live-action slate of films making me lose any excitement or hope I had for their remakes coming into the year.