Review | Maleficent: Mistress of Evil film review – Angelina Jolie returns in visually stunning sequel
- Film features a gorgeous climactic battle scene and an abundance of computer-generated characters that look fantastic, but storyline falls flat
- It lacks the darkness of the original and turns out to be a drab affair by the end
3/5 stars
The sequel to 2014’s Maleficent, Disney’s latest spectacle attempts to sprinkle more fairy dust on the Sleeping Beauty tale.
Angelina Jolie returns as the witch Maleficent, still thought of as the “killer of men, destroyer of armies” by most. When the story begins, she has a shot at redemption: her goddaughter Aurora (Elle Fanning) – whom she once cursed into a deep sleep – accepts the marriage proposal of the charming Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson, replacing the original’s Brenton Thwaites), uniting the fairy folk from the Moors and the humans of Ulstead.
Reluctantly, Maleficent accepts an invitation from Phillip’s parents, the King (Robert Lindsay) and Queen (Michelle Pfeiffer), to celebrate a union that will bring peace. The scene where she is practising smiling – “try it with a little less fang”, says her raven/human companion Diaval (Sam Riley) – is priceless.
But humour soon gives way to tragedy, as an altercation leads to Maleficent blamed and shot down, where she is rescued by a figure that looks much like her. Here, she finds she is not alone, with a race of creatures led by two very opposing forces (Ed Skrein and Chiwetel Ejiofor). There are twists to come, albeit nothing that cannot be spotted from a long way off.