Cassie Foresman, Senior
With her sharp cheekbones and long, twisted horns, Angelina Jolie captures the audience with her elegant and electrifying performance in Disney’s 2019 Maleficent: Mistress of Evil. This sequel to Maleficent, made in 2014, captures the same element of fantasy for children. Some critics say the darkness and violence in this movie is too much for children, but I would disagree; it is more magical and fantasy-like than violent. However, the CGI was occasionally over-the-top and unnecessary at some points while lacking at other crucial points. Overall, this movie was an entertaining and magical experience. However, it felt like a typical sequel movie only made for the profit margins.
Deemed as a villain within Ulstead, a neighboring kingdom, and evidently cursing Aurora’s, played by Elle Fanning, soon to be father-in law, the conflict begins early on as Maleficent, Aurora, and Queen Ingrith lash out their anger towards one another. The conflict between Ingrith, played by Michelle Pfeiffer, and Maleficent and their opposite kingdoms is a parallel to past American society regarding race and violence. At a dinner party for Aurora and her fiance, Prince Phillips, the unfortunate happens. After being shot and wounded by Queen Ingrith, Maleficent is saved by a group of fairies, just like her, who hide away in hopes of avoiding oppression from humans. Here, the fairies believe Maleficent has the power to end the conflict between the human world and fairy world, either with peace or war.
As the plot furthers, it seems to focus on irrelevant details rather than developing the strong characters, such as Ingirth and Maleficent. Aurora discovers that Ingrith is the true evil as she was the one who cursed King John, her husband, not Maleficent. She also now knows that Ingrith hates all Moor folk, of which Aurora is one. In response to the hatred and oppression from humans, the moor folk attack Ulstead and are quickly defeated by the human soldiers until Maleficent joins. She uses her strong powers to nearly kill Queen Ingrith but is stopped by Aurora, who appeals to Maleficent's humane side by calling her mother. Queen Ingrith shoots Maleficent with an arrow as she disintegrates. With audiences and Aurora heartbroken, her tears, or what feels like our tears, resurrect Maleficent as she is rebirthed as a Phoenix. In reaction to this, Ingrith pushes Aurora off the tower, causing Maleficent to heroically save her. In the end, the Moor folk come out victorious, Aurora and King Philip get their blessing, and evil queen Ingrith is turned into a goat as a punishment.
The overall theme of this movie is a great message to send to its younger, or even older, viewers. Through Maleficent, we see that, although she has defied tendencies and is viewed as an evil person, deep down she knows she is loving and capable of doing good things. Queen Ingrith shows that power hungry people who are backed up by bad morals, such as racism, will never come out victorious.
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