CINEMA: Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Joachim Rønning, 2019)

SPOILERS AHEAD for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil.

Going to the Cinema:

I took one of my best friends, Phoebe, to go see this film. She is obsessed with anything to do with dragons and absolutely loves the character of Maleficent and the film Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014), so I had to take her to see this at the cinema.

I went in with low expectations as Disney sequels don't particularly do well, however, I was relatively surprised and enjoyed the film. As this is an adaptation from the fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, I am going to do a blog post about it.

Adaptation From?

The earliest version of the Sleeping Beauty story is from the 1330s. Sleeping Beauty is a fairytale, which features a princess cursed by an evil witch and awakened by 'true love's kiss'.

Sleeping Beauty (Henry Meynell Rheam, 1899)

Maleficent (Robert Stromberg, 2014)

In this version of the film, the first film of this 'series', Prince Phillip doesn't break Aurora's sleeping curse, Maleficent does. Maleficent is betrayed and places a curse on the daughter of the King. Over the course of the daughters upbringing, Maleficent gets to know her and regrets what she has done. After failing to stop the curse, she actually is the one who fulfils it with true loves kiss - mother-daughter love, unconditional love. This is significant because it shows that the character of Maleficent has a heart and can become good.

She is both the hero and the villain of the story.

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil (Joachim Rønning, 2019)

Again, SPOILERS AHEAD.

In the sequel, Maleficent is still seen as the villain by the humans. She eventually finds her own people and finds out they have been pushed to the endangerment of their species by the humans and are waging war against the humans. They eventually through Maleficent becoming the dragon and the union of Aurora and Phillip, become united with the humans and live in peace.

Mistress of Evil:

The title is misleading in a way, as we believe the 'Mistress of Evil' is Maleficent from the title, however, the Queen is actually the true Mistress of Evil and the true villain of the story.

Michelle Pfeiffer's character of the Mother-in-Law Queen Ingrith is very interesting. She is a complex character, who hates the faeries. Her husband, the king and her son, Prince Phillip are both suing for peace and this is taking away from her plan. She poisons her husband and blames Maleficent, starting a war between the humans and the faeries. She is the VILLAIN of this film and the true Mistress of Evil.

For a second time, Angelina Jolie does a magnificent job portraying the character of Maleficent. 

The relationship between Maleficent and Aurora is one of a mother-daughter relationship and all she wishes is for Aurora to be safe.

Maleficent does not agree to the marriage of Aurora and Phillip to begin with. She believes that because of the betrayal of her first true love Aurora will experience the same and humans are not to be trusted. Aurora and Phillip's true love throughout the film proves to Maleficent that True Love does exist. Maleficent agrees to the marriage and walks her daughter down the aisle. 

Left: Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) and Queen Aurora (Elle Fanning) during the proposal in the film.