'Maleficent': Angelina Jolie is great, but the movie is lackluster
Who would imagine that Walt Disney Studios would go revisionist?聽鈥淢aleficent鈥� updates the "Sleeping Beauty" fable it famously animated in聽1959 and gives it a quasi-feminist, touchy-feely twist.聽
The big bad Maleficent, played in聽the movie by Angelina Jolie with curvy horns and cheekbones that could聽cut through solid steel, is given a sympathetic back story to explain all that聽nastiness. Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning), upon whom Maleficent聽placed a curse in a fit of vengeful pique, has become a rather ga-ga maiden聽tended by a trio of pixies (Imelda Staunton is the standout).聽
Director聽Robert Stromberg, making his debut as a director after supervising the聽visual effects for movies like 鈥淎lice in Wonderland鈥� and 鈥淎vatar,鈥� lacks聽the transcendent touch. At least Disney was smart enough to cast Jolie.聽She has a genuinely heroic presence. If only the movie were equal to it. Grade:聽C+ (Rated PG for sequences of fantasy action and violence, including frightening images.)
