Maleficent (2014)

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The "Sleeping Beauty" tale is told from the perspective of the villainous Maleficent and looks at the events that hardened her heart and drove her to curse young Princess Aurora. (imdb)

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Cast and Information

Directed By: Robert Stromberg

Written By: Charles Perrault, Paul Dini, John Lee Hancock, Linda Woolverton

Starring: Miranda Richardson, Angelina Jolie, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, Elle Fanning, Lesley Manville, Sharlto Copley, Ella Purnell, Sam Riley, Brenton Thwaites, Hannah New

Genres: Romance, Drama, Family/Kids, Fantasy, Action, Adventure

Franchise: Maleficent

Country: USA

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Maleficent belongs to 30 collections

1. Directorial debut (collaborative: moderated by djross - 16 stars)

2. #1 at the US Box Office (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub - 10 stars)

3. Best by different standards (public: sesito71 - 6 stars)

4. Disney+ (collaborative: moderated by saudade - 5 stars)

5. Top 3000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 5 stars)

6. Female-led Action (collaborative: moderated by Roman_Herbom - 4 stars)

7. Worldwide box office over $500,000,000 (collaborative: moderated by djross - 3 stars)

8. 87th Academy Awards: Nominated (public: okayfrog - 3 stars)

9. Top 1000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 3 stars)

10. Dragons (collaborative - 2 stars)

11. Disney's Theatrical Live-Action (collaborative: moderated by Vesey - 2 stars)

12. Live-Action Disney Adaptations (collaborative: moderated by Boxcars - 2 stars)

13. Cinema Sins (collaborative: moderated by Phantom Nook - 2 stars)

14. Top 2000 movies with the most votes on IMDb (public: fanfic - 2 stars)

15. Worldwide box office over $750,000,000 (collaborative: moderated by djross - 1 star)

16. Subgenre: High Fantasyfantastical events in a fantastical world (collaborative: moderated by tipar - 1 star)

17. Annual top 5 worldwide box office, 1975 - 2022 (public: djross - 1 star)

18. Top-grossing films in each country (2007-2014) (collaborative: moderated by juandr)

19. FThisMovie Ugly (collaborative)

20. Live-Action Fairy Tales (collaborative: moderated by amazedemon)

21. Nostalgia Critic - Disneycember (collaborative: moderated by Phantom Nook)

22. Dark Disney (collaborative: moderated by BeeDub)

23. My Movies (public: Thilerion)

24. 2014 (public: EbruCavdarli)

25. saw in theater (public: ribcage)

26. Films I saw in the cinema (public: Malcym)

27. Seen, Not Rated (public: SageSledge)

28. Disney Live-Action (public: jacqueskit)

29. To See (public: Contreras)

30. Jona cdtjes (public: medium123)

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All Ratings | With Reviews

Order by:

TCI | Percentile | Date Rated | # Stars (Reviews)

Stars	User	Rating
7	BeeDub	75 _29th
Disney desperatedly wanted this to be their "Wicked", but it's just another piece of lazy feminist revisionism. Uninspired and completely forgettable.
5	Ytadel	6 _70th
This isn't saying THAT much following up on Alice in Wonderland, Snow White and the Huntsmen, and Oz the Great and Powerful, but this is hands-down the best of Disney's new line of live-action remakes of their old movies. There's a lot of cheese, to be certain, and Aurora always feels more like plot device than true character. But there's also a few legitimately fresh ideas, and Jolie is fun to watch.
5	overrated	25 _16th
Yeah you can't cover up a heavy South African accent with Scottish.
4	DougieD	45 _11th
Exquisite visual effects and a great performance from Angelina Jolie as Maleficent are wasted on a story that has no compelling qualities. Despite the story going in a completely different direction than Sleeping Beauty, it feels like there is nothing at stake. You're just waiting and expecting everyone to live happily ever after. The tone is all over the place, veering from overly cheerful one second to dark and grim the next.
3	tma1	30 _10th
My review is a bit biased because I fell asleep during the movie. I imagine this was meant for kids. That is code for this movie was not very good. Production values are off the chart though.
3	Tripwyre	45 _25th
A rape revenge story... you know, for kids! The narrative reframes Sleeping Beauty's wicked villain as victim, using unsubtle rape analogies that kids might not pick up on, but certainly made this adult very uncomfortable. Who is this for? The actors all do fine work, and the central casting is inspired. But something is lost in the over-reliance on CGI. Sleeping Beauty's dragon battle is one of the most beautifully artful things in all of cinema. Here, it's just another not-so-special effect.
3	BillyShears	70 _53rd
Great visuals are farted all over by a weak story.
3	Vandelay1	39 _34th
not so good
3	jmarkthespot	30 _19th
i want to rub my balls all over angelina's godlike cheek bones
3	Matthew Parkinson (CineMarter)	60 _62nd
Angelina Jolie returns to the cinema with Maleficent, and she does so by stealing every scene she's in. Jolie commands the screen, which is hard to do with so much (great) CGI being placed all around her. The film provides us with a different take on the story of Sleeping Beauty -- and in particular, that film's villainess. It has its share of problems -- like how nobody apart from Maleficent matters, and how some of the film feels rushed -- but it's a decent watch that isn't a waste of time.
3	NothingsGood	40 _33rd
Maleficent bears the curse of being unreasonably bland. Things just happen. A birth, a curse, a dragon, a kiss. And they live happily ever after? Disney, of all studios, should remember that it's not the destination but the journey that matters. In Maleficent, there's no journey to be had.
3	KramYessev	63 _43rd
Jolie good. Movie bad. P.S. I was accused of being ignorant & not understanding to the social injustices towards women because I didn't like this movie. I'm retracting 2 points because this film has a stupid fanbase.
2	Charlie	45 _10th
Damn that was boring.
2	chadisdanger	50 _3rd
I like the idea of telling a famous story from the POV of the villain, especially one as commanding and iconic as Maleficent. But of course Disney, rather than running with the traits that made her an iconic villain in the first place, sands off her edges (if not her cheekbones). The fantasy world is also completely anonymous and boring, showing no particular character or edge. I must admit that Jolie's performance is charismatic, but it doesn't elevate the rest of the film enough.
2	mwgerb	39 _26th
About as good as the other recent complexified remakes of classic children's movies. Which is to say, not. Here, the problem is not the acting or the production, both of which seem to be outstanding in their own right. Instead, the story is just inherently bad. It hews so closely to the fairy tale details and logic of the original, while changing all the motivations, leaving a film that neither engages nor makes sense. Unfortunate given the apparently good work that went into it.
2	DavidBlast	55 _50th
A feminist storm is sweeping Tinseltown with a series of movies written by Tumblr. Here a chiseled faced super pixie turns evil after being drug raped, but finds true love with another woman and defeats her male punisher. This, like 'Frozen' or 'Suckerpunch', represents a misandrist empowerment fantasy, suggesting that women are wondrous creatures held back by evil men. I hate the zeitgeist, but in its own right, it's a refreshing twist to the male-centric formula, and I had a good time.
2	Bunken	40 _25th
The 'untold story'-angle is nothing but lack of creativity. What's next Disney? That Scar's lust for power was due to him not being breast fed, or the true story of Jago being taken away from his family in the forrest on the outskirts of Acrabar to be placed on the shoulder of an evil wizard? The only untold story I would like to see is the one of how Frank Booth really just deep down is a nice guy who had a rough childhood...
2	hellboy76	61 _28th
This is just a puff piece for Jolie and some decent effects. There is zero plot development and the story makes no sense told from this point of view.
2	xacviant	81 _55th
Disney's SLEEPING BEAUTY, reimagined so that the titular antagonist (Angelina Jolie) becomes a betrayed fairy whose reasons for cursing Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning) are a deal more complex--and the outcome of the story is a good deal different as well. Strikingly directed, economically written (without feeling truncated), and well acted by Jolie, Fanning, and Sharlto Copley as the ambitious king. Some dodgy CGI and the aggravating comic-relief pixies hamper it, but it's still worth seeing.
1	joseywales	39 _15th
All points for visuals, everything else is utter pap.
1	Wiche	82 _84th
I felt entertained and wasn't bored for a second. I liked it. Angelina does a marvelous thing, playing Maleficent. The character has something dark, something tender (althoudh always in a very childlike manner where I had expected the film to be much darker and intense). Actually, this is nothing more than an adaptation of the fairy tale and I can see why some people may feel disappointed, but except for the rash, simple and predictable ending, I liked every adaptation.
1	ludvigsen	60 _37th
Way better than some grumpy editor from a film-critic tv-program would suggest.
1	Wezzo	66 _18th
Laden with the requisite splendour, yes, but lacking in substance, not quite home to the crucial dash extra this movie needed to pull away from the dark-fairy-tale pack. Fun, though; Jolie is clearly having the time of her life, and this pleasantly black spin on the well-worn tale is suitably exciting.
1	PerryStroika	60 _40th
Some problems, but points for the weird subversive edge of this revisionist interpretation, turning an iconic Disney villain into a misunderstood heroine, the king into the villain and, true love into motherly self sacrifice.
1	glumpy_99	42 _6th
Dreary revisionist version of SLEEPING BEAUTY is well cast and attractively crafted (Jolie is a miracle worker given what she has to work with), but takes silly and unnecessary liberties with its story (Maleficent the fairy godmother?!) and ultimately devolves into a tedious (and endless) "action spectacular". Best moment: Jolie's spot-on recreation of the 1959 coronation confrontation, even if it doesn't make much sense in the context of the new take on Maleficent as a character.
1	Superargo	75 _75th
If you have to make a movie about the villain from SLEEPING BEAUTY, this is absolutely the way to do it. It's luscious to look at (and I'm not just talking about Angie), doesn't go overboard with the melodrama, and refuses to overstay its welcome. It's also cool how this manages to slip some darkness into the familiar tale, basically presenting Maleficent as fairly sympathetic from the get-go and showing us that the only thing she really did wrong was trust people.
1	mattorama12	51 _17th
It had a nice look to it and the kernel of an interesting spin/perspective. But it felt like every time it started to take a chance on something, the movie undercut itself to make sure it was being safe enough. Feels like it had the makings of a good movie, but ended up getting neutered somewhere along the way.
1	antidood1	40 _8th
Aggressively mediocre. It's so set on bashing you over the head with motives, themes and plotlines that it leaves no room for interpretation. Everything is spoon-fed, nothing is left to the imagination, and the ending is so exceptionally predictable that it's almost an achievement on its own. Overall just a bland fantasy movie with a complete lack of actual fantasy.
1	The Pirate	70 _31st
It's enjoyable enough, and kids will love it for sure, but I didn't really find anything about it original. You take the story of Sleeping Beauty, add the concept of Snow White/Huntsman, sprinkle in some Frozen style lesson planning, and place it in the set of Burton's Wonderland and Raimi's Oz. There you go. That's Maleficent.
1	TheEscapist	72 _59th
This film starts off great. Visually it's beautiful, the design is top-notch. The story at the start is touching and I liked the twists to the original tale. Unfortunately at some point not too far in the script gets worse and it becomes a bit messy and nonsensical. The visual style and cinematography save the film in this part. By the end the film gets a bit better again, with some fresh new ideas. A flawed film with massive potential that it doesn't live up to, but still worth a watch.
1	DrGoatman	51 _23rd
Jolie and Fanning do a good job with what they're given but, my god! The writing sucks!
1	PluggedIN	70 _72nd
Maleficent shows us, in her world, that love is far more powerful than any sort of magic she wields or iron that Stefan swings. The love of a mother is particularly strong--and that is what Maleficent becomes. Not Aurora's biological mother, of course, but her adoptive mother, who loves her with a ferocious gentleness that is touching to behold. (pluggedin.com)
1	BJHudson	40 _21st
blatantly lesbian
1	Groovy_Souls	40 _19th
This movie was definitely not good. The only reason was definitely to see Angelina Jolie, as the script was bad and the supporting characters were poorly written. It is just interesting to see how a movie that could have been dark, gritty, and fantastical becomes cheesy and happy. Just didn't work.
1	Iamdwg (Interpreting the Stars)	72 _40th
This is one of my least-favorite Disney live-action remakes for a variety of reasons, but its nice to see the different perspective, Angelina is perfect in the role, and it's always interesting when they make an argument for why the audience should care about the villain of the story...but it's still not a story I particularly enjoyed, and I was IN a Sleeping Beauty play in High School!
1	GorillaNosh	89 _41st
I would rather show this to my daughter than sleeping beauty. Story, set design, and acting we're all very good. not distracting. This is the kind of story I would sooner show my daughter as opposed to many of the princess flix you come across these days. I loved the take on this tale... And the portrayal of women as something more than clumsy, spiteful, helpless and unclever ornaments waiting for a prince to save them.

Average Percentile 36.79% from 2567 Ratings