Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a 2019 American dark fantasy adventure film directed by Joachim Rønning from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton, Noah Harpster, and Micah Fitzerman-Blue, and is the sequel to the 2014 film, Maleficent, which is a reimagining of Disney's classic film Sleeping Beauty. Just like the first film, this film’s plot is told from the point of view of Maleficent, the original 1959 film's iconic villain.

Plot
Maleficent travels to a grand old castle to celebrate young Aurora's upcoming wedding to Prince Phillip. While there, she meets Aurora's future mother-in-law -- a conniving queen who hatches a devious plot to destroy the land's fairies. Hoping to stop her, Maleficent joins forces with a seasoned warrior and a group of outcasts to battle the queen and her powerful army.

Good Qualities

 * 1) The film is a decent sequel to Maleficent, taking place 5 years after the events of the first film.
 * 2) Some funny moments.
 * 3) It manages to stay faithful to the source material, as it’s from Maleficent's point of view, but also gives Aurora and Phillip a good amount of focus too.
 * 4) Amazing worldbuilding.
 * 5) Good acting, and Elle Fanning does a better job portraying Aurora than the previous film. And once again, Angelina Jolie was wonderful as Maleficent!
 * 6) Great visuals.
 * 7) The characters are still likable, very entertaining and got character development, improving from the first film:
 * 8) * Maleficent is still the tragic villain who is one of the heroes in this story, as she sees through Queen Ingrith's true colors, and she protects and leads the Moors to defeat Queen Ingrith. She also has an understandable reason why she didn't trust Phillip yet, fearing he might betray Aurora like how Stefan betrayed her. Like the first film, being one of Disney's evilest villains, the film succeeds in making us sympathize and root for her.
 * 9) * Aurora is given a greater personality, and is more likable in this film as she later finds out about Queen Ingrith's true colors, and she escapes the locked room to help out the heroes in freeing and protecting the fairies. She also helps Lickspittle realize his mistakes, and informs Phillip about the truth of his father’s curse.
 * 10) * Prince Phillip gets more screen time in this film, as he helps with stopping the war against the kingdom's army and the Moors. He also understands the message Aurora tells him, even if it hurts his heart to find out his mother is evil, and still rebels against her to help Aurora, Maleficent, and the fairies, but also help find peace that the Moors can make with the kingdom.
 * 11) * Diaval, Maleficent's pet raven, is still given a large role here and still speaks due to being transformed into a human time to time. He even transforms into a bear to help Aurora free the fairies, which was awesome.
 * 12) * The three fairies get to do more in this film as they help free their kind. Flittle sacrifices herself to save her sisters and their friends. Then, Knotgrass and Thistlewit avenge her when they make Gerda fall to her defeat.
 * 13) The Moors and other big fairies like Maleficent in this film are awesome, as they want to live in peace and not fear the humans and the outside world.
 * 14) The rewrite of Queen Ingrith as a villain not trusting fairies was unexpected and well-executed, though a lot of fans of the character actually hated this change (See it in Bad Qualities).
 * 15) The romance between Aurora and Phillip is romantic and very heartwarming.
 * 16) The climax is awesome, as the Moors and the humans battle it out, but Prince Phillip stops the fighting and convinces them that peace is the best solution, and that Queen Ingrith is evil, so they stop fighting.
 * 17) The emotional scene where Aurora tells Maleficent she’s her mother, which touched Maleficent’s heart and stopped her rage against the Queen. Then, the Queen tried to kill Aurora, only for Maleficent to sacrifice herself to save her, and Aurora breaks down and cries as she lost her only parental figure in front of her eyes. But then, her tears revive Maleficent and turn her into an awesome phoenix dragon, much to Aurora’s relief and happiness to see her mother alive again and to the Queen’s horror.
 * 18) The final battle was awesome, and it ends with peace in the end after Maleficent saves Aurora when the Queen pushed her off. But the Queen doesn’t get too far and is soon surrounded by the Moors. After Maleficent and Aurora embrace, Maleficent gives Phillip her blessing, as she understands Phillip is sweet, brave and kind, and is nothing like Stephan. Lickspittle also gives Maleficent the curse spindle, which she destroys to destroy the curse, and awaken King John from his sleep.
 * 19) * Also, unlike King Stephan, at least Queen Ingrith fans will be relieved to know that she doesn’t die in the end, and instead her punishment is being turned into a goat by Maleficent, which is very funny and satisfying.
 * 20) The wedding ceremony as John and Phillip, father and son, reunite, the kingdoms of Ulstead and Moors make peace as Phillip and Aurora get happily married. Maleficent walks with Aurora to the ceremony after healing her wounds and making her a wedding dress, and a regenerating Flittle makes Aurora’s dress blue, making Knotgrass and Thistlewit happy.
 * 21) Good ending as next day, Maleficent flies to Aurora and Phillip in their castle, telling them she’ll be staying for a little longer, and promising them she’ll come back for their future child’s christening. She winks at them and flies with younger dark feys and maybe Queen of the Moors again. Aurora and Phillip kiss as we see two little fairy creatures, Pinto and Button, hanging out and also having a cute kiss.
 * 22) Unlike Alice Through the Looking Glass (the disappointing sequel to the already disappointing 2010 live-action remake of Alice in Wonderland), this sequel stands out by having an original story while also being faithful to the source material, and is quite decent.
 * 23) Like the first film, the concept of the antagonist who becomes the hero is still good, despite several fans who are a fan of the classic Maleficent complaining about this concept.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) The film can be a little dark, as with its predecessor.
 * 2) While some folks don’t mind about Ingrith being rewritten as an evil villain (as shown in Why It Rocks Category), there are most fans who hated the change of Queen Ingrith being a villain and felt that the idea had made her one of the most poorly written villains and a one dimensional villain.

Reception
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil received mixed reviews from critics, as well as universal acclaim from audiences and fans. The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported the film holds an approval rating of 39% based on 255 reviews, with an average rating of 5.10/10. The site's critics consensus reads: "While it's far from cursed, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil too rarely supports its impressive cast and visuals with enough magical storytelling to justify its existence." On Meracritic, the film has a weighted average score of 43 out of 100 based on 40 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A" on an A+ to F scale, the same score as the first film, while those at PostTrak gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars and a 59% "definite recommend". There’s a 6.6/10 rating on IMDb,

Forbes film critic Scott Mendelson called it the "best 'live action Disney fairytale' flick since 'Pete's Dragon,' " a 1977 live-action Disney flick starring Mickey Rooney and featuring a 2-D animated dragon that got the remake treatment in 2016.

Los Angeles Times film critic Justin Chang calls the film (written by returning scribe Linda Woolverton and A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood co-writers Noah Harpster and Micah Fitzerman-Blue) an “enjoyably deranged” continuation of the first movie thanks to Jolie’s commitment to the character’s grim quirks, though he ultimately notes the “flat dialogue, overblown battles, and cloying CGI critters” weigh down the film’s merits, while IndieWire‘s Eric Kohn adds that Jolie’s natural charm adds so much “delicious flamboyance to this striking villainess that she outshines the latest heavy-handed Disney refashioning” before quipping that “only the world’s biggest movie star could upstage her own movie with each fearsome scowl.”

Trivia

 * This is the last live-action Walt Disney Pictures movie released before the COVID-19 pandemic.