Maleficent (2014)

Maleficent is a 2014 American dark fantasy adventure film directed by Robert Stromberg from a screenplay by Linda Woolverton. A reimagining of Disney's classic film Sleeping Beauty, the film tells the story but from the point of view of Maleficent, the original film's iconic villain. It's noted for starting the current Disney live-action remakes trend.

Plot
In a reimagining of Disney's classic Sleeping Beauty, there was a young fairy named Maleficent once upon time. She fell in love with a farmboy named Stefan, who betrayed their relationship so he could become king. Losing her sanity, Maleficent curses Aurora, Stefan's daughter, to get back at him, but without intending to do so, she will grow close with the daughter of the man she once loved while he prepares to attack her.

Good Qualities

 * 1) Good grasp of the source material, reimagining it from Maleficent's point of view and not copying the original film's story shot-by-shot.
 * 2) Good acting, namely that of Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. The gal was born to play her, indeed!
 * 3) Some funny moments, amazing worldbuilding, and great visuals.
 * 4) Maleficent's characterization as a tragic villain who stopped believing in true love upon being betrayed is original and creative. Being one of Disney's evilest villains, the film succeeds in making us sympathize and root for her.
 * 5) Backstory of Maleficent is pretty interesting and well executed.
 * 6) Diaval, Maleficent's pet raven, is given a larger role here and even speaks due to being transformed into a human time to time.
 * 7) The climax is altered in a perfect way. To wake up Aurora from her eternal sleep, an act of true love must be performed on her. In a similar vein to Frozen, rather than Prince Phillip's kiss, it's a kiss of Maleficent which awakes Aurora.
 * 8) The final battle is awesome, although several people hated King Stefan’s death.
 * 9) Unlike most Disney live-action remakes of their classic animated films, this one stands out by presenting an original re-telling of the original story.
 * 10) Instead of the live-action film of the Sleeping Beauty, the concept of the antagonist became a hero is purely original, 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.
 * 2) The scene where King Stefan cuts off Maleficent's wings while she sleeps has been referred to as an allegory to rape, which is somewhat innapropriate for a family-friendly film.
 * 3) While sympathetic, the three fairies are depicted in a bad light as three irresponsible female equivalents of the Three Stooges who hardly raise Aurora on their own.
 * 4) Unlike the original film, Prince Philip barely appears and feels like an unnecessary addition to the film.
 * 5) The rewrite of King Stefan as a villain in Maleficent’s story is rather pointless because it should be noted that this concept had made him one of the most poorly written villains and a one dimensional villain. Sharlto Copley also made Stefan just a corrupted, insane, evil and short-tempered tyrant who is always prone to fits of anger and had no character development, making it clear that he was just used as a plot device for the role of a villain. He also didn’t have a backstory of why he is motivated to commit evil deeds. If Stefan have redeems himself by understanding that Maleficent saved Aurora, he would have reappeared in  Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and would have met King John, so they could have some fun and comedic moments together like in the original 1959 animated film.
 * 6) Aurora becomes more useless and bland, thanks to Elle Fanning’s bland performance.

Reception
Critical reception to Maleficent ranged from mixed to positive. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 54%, based on 273 reviews. The site's critical consensus reads, "Angelina Jolie's magnetic performance outshines Maleficent ' s dazzling special effects; unfortunately, the movie around them fails to justify all that impressive effort". On Metacritic, it received a score of 56 out of 100, based on 44 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". However, in both websites, it was much more positively received by some audiences and fans.

Despite starting the current trend of Disney live-action remakes of the classic Disney Animated Canon films, which most have been badly criticized, Maleficent has been seen by most audiences as one of the best, for trying to deviate from the animated film and tell the original story from a different point of view. It was likewise appreciated for breaking classic fairy tale tropes. Aside the costumes, visual effects and musical score, Angelina Jolie's performance as the titular character was singled out by filmgoers as the best part of the whole film, even by those who hated the movie in terms of messing up the characters.

Trivia

 * Mary Costa, who voiced Princess Aurora in the original Sleeping Beauty, stated that Maleficent was "a very good movie", enjoying both the totally different concept and perspective than those of the original film as well as Angelina Jolie's performance.