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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 film about Maleficent with some trepidation. Hollywood always wants to explain why a villain is a villain. Never mind that the best, like the Joker and Maleficent, have no "why" to them. Yes, a little background is nice, and I'm not arguing that villains should always just be evil, but in Sleeping Beauty (and The Dark Knight, for that matter) it works and works well.

The backstory in Maleficent is a bit of a hack yet it works because it's driven by that captivating performance by Jolie. She owns the part in the same way that Val Kilmer owns Doc Holiday and Heath Ledger owns the Joker, only more so. Why? Because of her story; she has one, they don't.

After one viewing, it's hard to sum up how great a job she does. The pain she feels at being betrayed is palatable. Predictable? Sure. Sort of a cliché? All right. Yet Jolie makes you feel it nonetheless. I loved how when she's all happy and maybe even good, her magic has a golden hue. Yet when she flips, when the evil and hatred comes bubbling up, the glow is a malevolent green.

That color shifting keeps coming around as her story unfolds, and I loved it. I loved how the child Aurora, hated and cursed by Maleficent, runs up and gives her a big hug because that's what kids do.  And Maleficent's near-pitiful muttering of, "Go away, I don't like children" doesn't send the child away. Just as a cat is drawn to people who don't like cats, and dogs find the one who doesn't like dogs, the child Aurora is drawn to the very creature who has condemned her to a terrible fate.

Jolie's work her is superb. She's quiet, she's menacing, and she registers emotions with a twitch of an eyebrow. Her eyes reflect joy and pain and love and sorrow and victories and loss and egads, I'm going to bubble over I loved it so.

I would be terribly remiss if I didn't give a shout out to Sam Riley as Diaval the crow. He's a great henchman and his indignation at being turned, albeit briefly, into a wolf is awesome.

Elle Fanning is spot on as Aurora. She could have been overly sweet and cloying; she isn't. She strikes just the right notes with Jolie and they have a relationship that actually grows, which indeed is Maleficent's story.

As for the rest of the cast, they range from "oh, nice background bits" (most everyone) to "oh God, get off the screen" (the three fairies) to "oh God, make it stop" (King Stefan). It's becoming sadly clear that Sharlto Copley's fine performance in District 9 was a fluke, because he's worse here than he was in Elysium. And it's not just his acting, it's the way his character is written.

Fortunately for all of us, all of those annoyances are more often than not shoved off the screen and we're back with Angelina Jolie and Maleficent. The filmmakers wisely kept this film to a lean 97 minutes (probably less than 90 once you allow for the credits). It forces a certain simplicity and focus. Yes, they could have used some time to do a better job with the rest of the film (e.g., give Stefan some semblance of humanity). But they didn't and with what they had they focused on what is great about the film. They also kept the hell out of Jolie's way.

I'm glad that my fears about Maleficent's backstory were unfounded. Angelina Jolie does a grand job bringing one of my favorite characters to life. Her story is sad and terrifying and beautiful and it's what I want to watch over and over again.

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