Maleficent was a live action re-working of Sleeping Beauty. It was entirely from the perspective of the "villain" and reimagined the story when Maleficent was not as villainous as she seemed.
I always love the concept of a "flipped" story. Wicked was one of the first productions I ever saw that did this, and it has turned into a new pattern and trend in which people constantly reimagine the villain as really being the hero of the story. I also think that if there is one story in which the original would not translate to a super exciting live-action remake, it is Sleeping Beauty. So I totally understand why Disney wanted to tell a different story.
Just like the original Sleeping Beauty, I found myself kind of bored throughout. From a movie critic perspective, I totally was underwhelmed and felt that the action was more CGI-dependent instead of plot-dependent. I also felt the filmmakers had a few golden characters that they almost refused to flesh out. Watching this movie definitely felt like more of an assignment than previous Disney movies that we have watched in class. Because despite Angelina Jolie being nearly perfect casting as Maleficent (though her contour was incredibly distracting throughout), it wasn't enough for me to feel invested in her.
The opening of the film showcased King Stefan's manipulation of the poor fairy Maleficent. They fell in love as children, and Stefan used that when trying to kill her to become the next King. He ultimately couldn't do it, and cut off her wings instead, and Maleficent was so crippled by this (physically and mentally) that she decided to take revenge on Stefan and showcase through a curse on his child how brutal his actions were. Stefan was an insanely dislikable character (and ugly), so the audience was supposed to sympathize with Maleficent when she took revenge. However, the whole thing came across as super petty to me. Though she was undeniably strong and free willed throughout, I did feel as though Angelina Jolie's character was super petty and her actions weren't warranted. I also thought it was noteworthy that the filmmaker's story arch was a girl upset because she didn't get the boy. I do think that is interesting to point out, especially as one of the stereotypical "negative" qualities of a female is her jealousy. You could almost perceive the filmmakers as attempting to make a strong female character, but still being unable to make that character without wrapping her up in a male's plot.
My favorite character was Maleficent's person-bird, Diaval. I was hoping throughout the film that something would come of him, but as I said in my criticism with the lack of fleshed-out characters, nothing ever did! I would have LOVED if he was a younger actor and ultimately was the one to fall in love with Aurora, or even if they made a Maleficient-Diaval romance, but unfortunately, they never did. I know that they didn't want to do this in order to create an untraditional "love story" (that between a mother and her child), but considering Disney had just done this with Brave, that kind of "surprise! It's a non traditional love!" no longer felt exciting or interesting to me (though I totally concede the point that in order to deconstruct the traditional "fairy tale love" you can't always focus on a heterosexual romance).
Another criticism I had is that the three GREATEST characters in the original animation (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather) were like, totally irrelevant and not nearly as fantastic or witty as the humor incorporated decades ago. There awesomeness certainly should not have been something sacrificed for the live-action remake.
So ultimately, despite just the overall criticism of it being boring, I still felt that you could find some of the stereotypical gender problems in this film as in the first one, such as the reliance of making a male character to catalyze the plot. But of course, the feminist backstory deconstruction made it "progressive" in other senses. By showing Maleficent being Aurora's true love, it highlighted the importance of a specifically female relationship in a child's life, regardless if that female is the mother or not.
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