Maleficent (2014) - Jolie shines in effects spectacle

♥♥♥♥

 

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?

Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016) - Bobin, Woolverton and Disney's poorly constructed sequel

♥♥

+ Most Expensive Flop of the Year + Worst Sequel of the Year

Johnny Deep as the Mad Hatter is most prominent on this packed, dizzying, highly detailed poster for James Bobin's Alice Through the Looking Glass

Alice returns home from the seven seas - and faces intransigent challenges. She walks through a mirror to Wonderland, in which the Mad Hatter has grown increasingly mad, apparently because his family's death many years ago haunts him. - Alice must travel back in time to change this!

Alice Through the Looking Glass is the sequel to Tim Burton's good big hit 3D spectacle Alice in Wonderland (2010). It is written by Linda Woolverton (Maleficent (2014)), based on Lewis Carroll's (A Tangled Tale (1885)) characters, and directed by James Bobin (The Muppets (2011)).
The film begins well with the self-assured Alice's return to patriarchal ridicule, but somewhere along the way after this, the illusion that the film tries to build falls apart, despite its radiant colors and exuberant effects.
Sacha Baron Cohen (The Brothers Grimsby (2016)) entertains a Werner Herzog-inspired accent here as the villain Time and possesses some strange, Transformers-like creatures. Johnny Depp (The Libertine (2004)) looks stranger than in the first film as the Mad Hatter and now has frog-like eyes. He does well for the most part, but there are shots in which he visibly struggles to find the right face, and this is understandable: The sappy story about Alice's having to save the Hatter's family, - of whom we only really get to know his unlovable father, - so that that same father can finally accept the Hatter wholeheartedly - is muck.
The story is the main issue here, wobbling and just plain bad. SPOILER As the past sees the future towards the end, everything turns rusty in excremental browns, but why this happens - don't ask, for the film has no answer. Mia Wasikowska (Jane Eyre (2011)), who was a major part of why the first film was quite a thrill, is an adult woman now and much less compelling as Alice.
Alice Through the Looking Glass is a major flop for all involved. Ouch.

Related posts:

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland
James Bobin: 2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]

2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2016 in films - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
The Muppets (2011) or, Man or Muppet? 

Watch a trailer for the film here

Cost: 170 mil. $
Box office: 299.4 mil. $
= Big flop
[Alice Through the Looking Glass premiered 10 May (London) and runs 113 minutes. Shooting took place in England from August - October 2014. The film opened #2, behind fellow new release X-Men: Apocalypse, to a 26.8 mil. $ first weekend, down 70 % from the first film's 116 mil. $, in North America, where it spent another week in the top 5 (#4) and grossed an abysmally low 77 mil. $ (25.7 % of the total gross). The 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were China with 58.7 mil. $ (19.6 %) and Japan with 26.7 mil. $ (8.9 %). The film was one of the year's costliest flops, resulting in a loss of around 125 mil. $. It was nominated for a Grammy and 3 Razzie awards. Bobin has not been hired for another project since. Alice Through the Looking Glass is rotten at 30 % with a 4.6/10 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Alice Through the Looking Glass?

Alice in Wonderland (2010) - Wasikowska is the perfect lead for Burton's visual wonderland

♥♥♥♥

1 Film Exc
ess win:

Best Digital Effects  

5 Film Excess nominations:


Best Lead Actress: Mia Wasikowska (lost to Jennifer Connelly for Virginia/What's Wrong with Virginia)
Best Supporting Actress: Helena Bonham Carter, also for The King's Speech (lost to Dianne Wiest for Rabbit Hole)
Best Costumes: Colleen Atwood (lost to Pat Field for Sex and the City 2) 
Best Digital Effects (won) 
Best Makeup and Hair (lost to The Wolfman)

+ Best Blockbuster Movie of the Year
+ Best Shooting Star Actress of the Year: Mia Wasikowska

A poster full of exciting details and depth for Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland

Alice is a young, beautiful English girl, who is in the process of finding out who she is, when she is proposed to at an overwhelming ceremony and flees down a rabbit hole, which she happens to fall into and ...

Californian master filmmaker Tim Burton (Batman Returns (1992)) hasn't paired himself with the easiest story from the Disney back catalog here with Lewis Carroll's (A Tangled Tale (1885)) two Alice novels (1865 and 1871). But he lays a good, strong foundation with the first scenes and then opens up an incredibly animated universe with inspired, Oscar-nominated costume, makeup and hair work. 
Johnny Depp (The Tourist (2010)) is tremendous as the Mad Hatter; Helena Bonham Carter (Sixty Six (2006)) gives one of her career's best performances as the mercurial Red Queen; Matt Lucas (The Labyrinth (2016)) is fun as Tweedledee/Tweedledum, but the cat may be the favorite among the crazy characters, an amazing-looking creation. Mia Wasikowska (Only Lovers Left Alive (2013)) is, however, the film's natural center and absolutely perfect and enchanting as Alice.
The film loses some of its 3D magic as home viewing, SPOILER and the dragon scene in the end is a somewhat strange change of tone in an otherwise tip-top witty-wacky movie. Alice in Wonderland is a little long but also funny and visually resplendent.
It is written by Linda Woolverton (The Lion King (1994)).

Related posts:

Tim Burton: Dark Shadows (2012) - Fun, flamboyant vampire romp is a celebration of culture
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED III]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED II]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess [UPDATED I]
2010 in films and TV-series - according to Film Excess
Corpse Bride (2005) - Impressive, loud, hollow, dark doll fairytale 
Ed Wood (1994) - Burton's sticky biopic with strenuous Depp
Batman Returns (1992) - Burton gives us the ultimate, Gothic spin on Gotham City and its sinister characters
Top 10: The best action movies and TV-series reviewed by Film Excess to date
Batman (1989) - A huge, glitzy, empty joker
Beetle Juice (1988) - Burton and team serve one of the best horror comedies ever   

Watch the trailer for the film here

Cost: Estimated 200 mil. $
Box office: 1.025 bil. $
= Big hit
[Alice in Wonderland premiered February 25 (London) and runs 108 minutes. Burton signed with Disney to make two 3D films with them: Alice and a Frankenweenie (1984) remake that premiered in 2012. Shooting lasted from September - December 2008 in England and LA, with 90 % of the shoot taking part in front of green screens. The film was shot with conventional cameras and then converted into 3D, as 3D cameras were thought to be too clumsy. In England, the film's release was controversial, as some theater chains chose to boycott it, because the theater-to-DVD window was announced to be shortened from 17 to 12 weeks. The film opened #1 (and stayed atop for 3 consecutive weeks) to a 116.1 mil. $ first weekend in North America, where it grossed 334.1 mil. $ (32.6 % of the total gross). The film's 2nd and 3rd biggest markets were Japan with 133.6 mil. $ (13 %) and the UK with 64.4 mil. $ (6.3 %). It is the 2nd highest-grossing film of the year, behind Toy Story 3. It is Burton's highest-grossing film ever and only the 6th film to cross the 1 bil. $ mark ever. It broke several records and by spring 2011 had also accrued 76.4 mil. $ from 4.3 mil. DVD sales. Roger Ebert awarded the film 3 stars out of 4, equal to the rating it gets here. The film was Oscar-nominated for Best Visual Effects, (which it lost to Inception), Costumes and Art Direction, winning the latter two. It was nominated for 3 Golden Globes and 5 BAFTAs, winning two. Alice in Wonderland is rotten at 52 % with a 5.7 critical average at Rotten Tomatoes.]

What do you think of Alice in Wonderland?