[insert review here]

As the voice of a sweet, endearing old women begins to speak over the swooping shots of the fictional kingdom we will be inhabiting for the next hour and a half, I was excited. The story of Sleeping Beauty, more so the Disney classic film, was one of the first fairy tales movies I remember seeing. Sadly, I still prefer the 1959 version to this updated, POV shift from Aurora to the baddest villain in Disney history.

The appeal of Maleficent as a villain is that she is a bitch. Plain and simple. She was not troubled in the cartoon version, she had no reason for the curse she placed on a child and at the end when she morphs into the green flamed dragon and the prince slays her, we all sigh in relief that she is dead. By giving Maleficent a backstory and subsequently making her a "mother" figure to Aurora we loose much of that evil that made her a villain. 

Robert Stromberg does a fine job of creating the world in which these characters dwell, the film itself is visually stunning (even those overdone flying shots over the kingdom). He keeps the film moving even when the story begins to lag and eye-rolls begin. The major problem is the story. When I see a story about Maleficent i expect to see some evil and I really wanna hate her, this is not what occurs.

I understand the point was to provide a backstory, which was fine and I rather enjoyed [spoiler alert: she's bad because of a broken heart]. In fact, the beginning of the film is it's strongest because of he backstory, it is after the cures is placed that the film begins to falter. The actors, especially Jolie as the lead, make the best of the script and we are finally reminded as to just how commanding and brilliant Jolie can be when given a juicy role. She is magnificent in scenes where she can be bad, drawing out her lines filling them with menace and shadows. Elle Fanning is fine as the princess whose main job is to prick her finger. 

The main problem I keep having with the story is that Maleficent starts to care about, even fall in love with Aurora and vice versa. This is too much of a derail from the original story and a choice that hindered the film. I kept waiting for the climatic scenes where Philip would climb through the thrones and slay the Dragon. Well there is dragon...but not the way one would expect and do not even get me started on the "true love's kiss" part of the story that made me rolling my eyes so hard I thought they were going to pop out of my head.