Random Movie Review - Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

So when this whole thing of Disney doing live action remakes of their beloved animated films started, we got a film that technically was a Sleeping Beauty remake, but told from the perspective of the main villain. And it had a mixed response, but many do agree that it was a very decent film that can be among the few Disney remakes to be forgiven for its existence. Now I know Disney had been doing other remakes before then with 101 Dalmations and no Alice in Wonderland does not count because despite the name, it has nothing to do with the original animated film. Very rarely do these remakes get sequels and now we have a sequel to the one film that started the trend of releasing at least one remake per year. The problem I have with these remakes is that it kind of shows that Disney are either trying to make a different version of the original film to a new generation, or they are desperate and just in it for the money. Yes the same company that now own Pixar, Marvel, LucasFilm and assets acquired from Fox, are desperate for money. This certainly rings a bell as they were feeling that way when these sequels were direct to home media. But all reasons aside, they are doing these remakes for a reason. We just don't know what that reason is and just theorize it all the time. So let's see how this sequel plays out:

Following the events of the first film, Aurora (reprised by Elle Fanning) has reigned as Queen of the Moors alongside her adoptive mother Maleficent (reprised by Angelina Jolie) who is their guardian and protector. But the neighbouring kingdom of Ulstead have conflicting opinions about the so called mistress of evil. Prince Philip (this time played by Harris Dickinson) loves Aurora and wants to marry her which King John (played by Robert Lindsay of My Family fame) sees as a means to unite both kingdoms for the sake of peace. Whereas Queen Ingrith (played by the fabulous Michelle Pfeiffer) feels that Maleficent is their kingdom's greatest threat and has secretly been preparing to take her down. Maleficent is against the union, but Aurora makes attempts to prove her wrong which leads into a series of events where tensions rise, Maleficent find her true calling and sacrifices are made.

This is not a good film. While the first film really was about Maleficent in almost every way, this one just feels like those terrible fantasy films that try to tell a good story with artistic value but try too hard that it ultimately fails. Having said that, this film has some redeeming qualities. The humour is not too shabby, the battle scenes are epic and the character development for Maleficent is good in that the film just like the first, is about her, first and foremost. Though some parts from the first one were not very well improved in this one such as the three fairies who are as annoying as ever and I think the film does have an over reliance on CGI, but at least these days it doesn't look cheap. 7/10