Witness the well-known Disney version of the tale Sleeping Beauty but with a different protagonist--or antagonist. The famed villain now gets her own origin story.
Or I could say, follow the famed villain in her good guy origins to her downfall as a bad guy to her redemption as an almost good guy to a climax as a kind of bad guy. The movie wasn't terrible, but it wasn't that great either. The only thing that stood out were the visual effects and animation on which Disney obviously spent the majority of their time.
My main problem is that, if you're going to do an origin story, it has to tie up nicely with the original. For me, this movie was Wicked all over again. The villain we all know is given sympathy (which is fine) but never actually turns evil. It just weakens the original. There were many ways this movie did not tie up with Sleeping Beauty, but it mostly had to do with changing the character of Maleficent.
The movie felt very rushed, and within just a couple minutes, Maleficent has already turned evil just because a man betrayed her by cutting off her wings. At this point, I was quite confused. She's supposed to be a fairy, but where are the others fairies of her kind? And if she's a fairy, then what are the three little creatures that help Sleeping Beauty? As for her powers, she was practically a god. She could do anything--anything except give herself another pair of wings.
I guess I liked Maleficent watching Aurora growing up and basically being her guardian, but it just made the ending of the movie weak because she wasn't the bad guy anymore. I mean, she didn't even turn into a dragon! The moment we all knew and for which were waiting was actually her casting a spell on her crow and transforming him into a dragon that did nothing. All the movie left me with was a desire for an origin story of Stephan, the king and father of Aurora. His arc into darkness was very interesting, much more than Maleficent's. But I suppose if they made a movie of him, it would show that he was not the bad guy, and there would be some other person to blame.
Also, the entire screen time that Aurora was indeed Sleeping Beauty...was five minutes. And the prince was absolutely pointless. His kiss didn't even work. Again--messing with the original. I just feel like the movie could have really achieved something if Disney had actually let Maleficent be evil like she was just for a couple minutes in the film. It could have provided more theme than whatever was trying to be put across with her sort-of-redemption and willingness to let the real bad guy die. Too many character changes for me. Angelina Jolie did amazing though--I just didn't like the character.
Hey, don't blame me for all these opinions. My vote was to see Edge of Tomorrow.
