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| An eerily horned but voluptuously red-lipped Angelina Jolie ensconces an idyllic Sleeping Beauty on this delectable poster for Robert Stromberg's Maleficent |
In fairy land the powerful fairy Maleficent rules, but humans are wary of her, and the king covets her wings. This becomes the seed for a long drama.
Maleficent is written by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King (1994)), loosely based on Charles Perrault's The Sleeping Beauty/La Belle au bois Dormant (1330-1344) and Disney's Sleeping Beauty (1959), and directed by debuting Robert Stromberg (Avatar (2009, production designer)).
Angelina Jolie (Without Evidence (1995)) is really good as the majestic anti-hero in a film with smashing effects, which makes audiences want to see it in 3D. Elle Fanning (The Nutcracker in 3D (2010)) is lovely as the princess, and the mix of colorful environments, action, darkness and cheer works out well.
The film develops into a kind of revisionist struggle, matriarchy vs patriarchy, but unfortunately the fight is too uneven and seems settled in advance; despite Jolie's gothic horns and cheekbone prosthetics she is still so much more sympathetic in all of her mega-star might than the miscast Sharlto Copley (Oldboy (2013)), who seems deeply villainous as the king, with his hideous South-African accent and ungainly exterior. (Someone like Michael Shannon would have been a much better and more thrilling match for the part.)
Maleficent is still a good alternative fairytale spectacle for (almost) the whole family.
Watch a trailer for the film here
Cost: 180 - 263 mil. $ (different reports)
Box office: 758.4 mil. $
= Box office success (returned 3.35 times its cost; some uncertainty)
[Maleficent premiered 28 May (Los Angeles + 9 other markets) and runs 97 minutes. A reported 15 drafts were made prior to production. The film was intended to be animated, before Jolie was cast. Shooting took place in England from June - October 2012. A 37 mil. $ tax rebate was given the production from the UK authorities. John Lee Hancock was hired to help Stromberg with reshoots of the film's beginning. Jolie was paid a 15 mil. $ salary, which grew to 33 mil. $ with profit participation. The film opened #1 to a 69.4 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it spent another 4 weeks in the top 5 (#2-#3-#5-#5) and grossed 241.4 mil. $ (31.8 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 63.2 mil. $ (8.3 %) and China with 47.7 mil. $ (6.3 %). It became Jolie's highest-grossing film to date and the year's 4th highest-grossing film over-all. The film was nominated for the Best Costume Design Oscar, lost to The Grand Budapest Hotel. It was also nominated for 2 BAFTAs and several other honors. A less successful sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, directed by Joachim Rønning, was released with Jolie back in the title role in 2019. Stromberg returned with 6 short and TV projects and has bio-drama Relativity in pre-production. Jolie returned in By the Sea (2015). Maleficent is rotten at 54 % with a 5.70/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]
What do you think of Maleficent?
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