Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

Maleficent：Mistress of Evil is a fantasy feature produced by Walt Disney Studios. It is directed by Joachim Rodney and starred by Angelina Jolie, Michelle Pfeiffer and Elle Fanning.  Based on a Disney fairy tale, the film tells the story of the odd relationship between Maleficent and Queen Ingrith, mother of Prince Philips, fiancée of Princess Aurora, which in turns upsets the used to be peaceful human and elves relationship.

Maleficent released in 2014 set off a global “maleficent craze”.  As the fairy godmother, who is cold on the outside and hot on the inside, overturns audiences’ impression of the villain in the fairy tale Sleeping Beauty.  Five-year later, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil returns to the dark fantasy genre with an intriguing new story exploring the world beyond the forest of Moer.  The marriage of Princess Aurora and the prince reveals more secrets from the long peaceful Moer forest, an epic battle between human and elves!

In Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, Angelina Jolie continues to feature the mysterious and powerful dark fairy Maleficent.  She is strong, beautiful, aggressive.  Instead of a cumbersome fairy dress, she wears a cloak, with a black horn on her head and a wand in hand.  She takes the audiences all the way into a magical new world.

Michelle Pfeiffer plays Queen Ingrith, a powerful woman who yearns for supremacy, is gentle and kind on the surface, evil and selfish on the inside.  She hates elves, and she wants to segregate human and elves forever.  She even structures the fight between human and elves.

Elle Fanning returns to the role of Princess Aurora. The innocent and pure girl will learn to take charge in the process of growing up for love.  She was cursed by Maleficent, is now the new queen of Moer forest.  Princess Aurora is kind and tolerant. She has been favored by the elves since birth and has a carefree positive attitude.  She wants to fit into her fiancée family, but is caught in the middle of the conflict between human and elves.

A visual feast

The audio-visual effects of Maleficent: Mistress of Evil has improved from the previous film.  The original production team of Beauty and the Beast spent heavily to create the top special effects. The unique battle scenes and magnificent wonderland are all presented on the big screen.  Hollywood art director Patrick Tatterpoulos was hired to create the eerie dark jungle and magnificent kingdom castle.  The special effects shots in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil are all impressive. In the film, Queen Ingrith provoked a war between humans and elves.  The battle between the races was grand and magnificent, and all kinds of action moved your emotion. Maleficent: Mistress of Evil special effects can well be compared to Avatar.  Compared to the first film, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil has greatly improved its visual effects, with shooting more human, and more cinematic.  Though the story itself is still a little thin, but the new scenes are refreshing.  And with elaborate costume design, the overall picture is very beautiful and aura.

In the Disney World, everything is beautiful.  Pictures are suffocating, all things are harmonious with happy ending of love emitting world peace.  But fairy tale is fairy tale.  Human weakness and unlimited desires give rise to wars and killings and discrimination.  The benefit of fairy tale is to steer human to goodness, letting them see and enjoy happiness of this world, this job has been done perfectly by Disney.   In the world of Disney, everyone is equal to enjoy his/her natural rights and happiness regardless of his/her origin, race, gender, nationality, identity, sexual orientation and status.  In Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, we can still find the spirit Disney wants to convey: love and growth, goodness and beauty, will overcome evil.

Throughout the story, Maleficent’s switch between elves and immortals is based on love and hate.  Hate due to love, as well as compassion due to love let us feel that we need to see the world through Aurora’s kindness and gentleness, but also the godmother’s calm and dominance to reject unfair and awkward.

Source: HBU Youth Volunteer