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Showing posts from June, 2014

Maleficent

By any rational standard, this isn't a good film. It has yawning, massive plot holes, it has, for the most part, shabby characterizations. It's plot barely exists. And I don't care. Just as Charlie Jane Anders says on io9 : "I love this movie. I'm going to buy the DVD and watch it over and over." This is entirely due to a fantastic and engaging performance by Angelina Jolie as Maleficent. And the story of Maleficent, the one that Jolie tells, is fantastic. I should pause and say how great a fan I am of Maleficent, and I mean the character, the one I first met in the 1959 Disney animated feature Sleeping Beauty . A film of great simplicity, it introduces you to Maleficent, arguably the greatest villain in all fiction. Why is she so great? Again, simplicity. Maleficent is evil. Why is she evil? Who cares, she just is. The Joker just wants to watch the world burn, Maleficent just wants to watch humans squirm. So I greeted the announcement of a live action f