This movie was something that I looked forward to see together with my wife, as it was a film set in the universe of the fairy tales which my wife adored a lot. It was also the sequel to the successful movie back in 2014. However, as she was having a holiday trip on her own and I could not accompany her due to my work schedule, I went to see this movie by myself when it premiered last night. Well how was the movie? Let's find out below.
Brief Story Line
Set 5 years after the event of the first movie, Aurora (Elle Fanning - Live by Night, Mary Shelley etc) who was now the queen of Moors was having a peaceful and happy life with the fairies and other creatures together with her godmother Maleficent (Angelina Jolie - Wanted, Mr & Mrs. Smith etc) and Diaval (Sam Riley - Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Control etc).
But when Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson - The Darkest Minds, Trust TV series etc) wanted to marry Aurora, Maleficent had to meet with Phillip's parents King John (Robert Lindsay) and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer - Mother!, Ant-man and the Wasp etc). Things would soon start to fall apart as it would appear that a war would be imminent. And the appearance of mysterious characters of Donall (Chiwetel Ejiofor - 2012, The Lion King 2019 version etc) and Borra (Ed Skrein - Alita: Battle Angel, Deadpool etc) really complicate matter.
So how would the story conclude? Find them all in this dark fantasy movie.
End of Brief Story Line
This movie was actually moving in a pretty good direction from the beginning but when it reached to a certain point, the movie took a huge unexpected turn which I really did not like at first as it felt weird (personally for me it was a bit too creative). However as the story progressed, this part started to grow on me and I could slowly accept it, though till the very end, I concluded that there was no actual need to deviate the story so much as even without that part, the main story would have been wonderful already. In this area, I got to hand it to the producers for keeping the part under wrap and not even a hint in the movie trailers, so you could be in for a real surprise here.
Things I loved the most about this movie was definitely the visual effects which were absolutely wonderful. They were beautifully done and very realistic (especially that cute little creature Pinto). Credits to be given to the visual effects team and the director Joachim Rønning (Pirates of the Carribbean: Salazar's Revenge) who managed to found ways to maximize the camera angles taken to show those effects. I could imagine seeing this in IMAX or 4DX would have been a great experience too.
The cast of the movie were generally good in portraying their characters, with my personal favorites both Angeline Jolie who seemed to be born for the role of Maleficent and of course Michelle Pfeiffer who was just amazing as Queen Ingrith. They both had such strong presence that we could really feel the coldness between these two. Another character whom I also liked was Diavall who provided some humorous moments. Meanwhile those fairies got less screen times in here. Btw Prince Phillip was now portrayed by different guy (previously Brenton Thwaites) which would explain why I felt he looked different.
Aside from the lovely visual effects, I also thought that the musical score really stood out as I could feel the tension and the emotion during certain moments. The Dolby surround 7.1 system was good enough to capture the effects, though it would probably have been a lot better had I saw this in Dolby Atmos studio as it did have such effect as I noticed in the closing credits. There was no mid or post end credits scene in here. Ooh, before the film started, I felt strange there was no new movie trailers at all, then I realized that the censorship body categorized this for all ages. Although I found that the movie had a sense of darkness, but ultimately this is a Disney movie and the fairy tales feel was still quite strong especially towards the end (which made me felt sure that I would probably enjoy this movie more if I had seen it together with my wife).
Overall I thought this movie was quite OK. I would have liked it better if there was no such huge "deviation" to the main story, but the amazing special effects and the finale scenes certainly could make up for it. And Angelina Jolie plus Michelle Pfeiffer appearance were also a joy to see. However, if I had to compare with the original movie, I thought this one was an inferior sequel and I loved the first one a lot better as the story was pretty well written. So if you are fans of Disney movies, love to see a bit of fairy tale with great visual effects, then this movie should please you. However, if you are hoping for a movie of the highest quality from Disney, this one would not fit into that category. The choice is yours.
Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars
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