--- description: Angelina Jolie brings her otherworldly majesty to the villainess from Disney's Sleeping Beauty, but this live-action revisionist update is a dismaying botch title: Maleficent Movie Review: Angelina Jolie in Disney Muddle image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3055c7d5ad02b08f/6986901c3bc99967861a38e5/maleficent-albarran_dock.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [movies](/tag/movies/) ## movies Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # REVIEW: _Maleficent_: Sympathy for the Rebel ## Video: Behind the Scenes of Maleficent [Watch (HLS stream): Behind the Scenes of Maleficent](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dOYsgY8j.m3u8) (1:47)  _Published 2014-05-27. More than 60 years after cursing Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent is finally getting a chance to tell her side of the story._ by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 29, 2014 7:26 PM CUT  Angelina Jolie in a scene from Maleficent Angelina Jolie in a scene from MaleficentFrank Connor—AP/Disney by [Richard Corliss](/author/richard-corliss/) ## Richard Corliss Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close May 29, 2014 7:26 PM CUT This one had all the makings: a famed Disney villainess played by Hollywood’s’ most infernally glamorous star; a script by the screenwriter of Disney’s [_Beauty and the Beast_](http://entertainment.time.com/2012/01/12/beauty-and-the-beast-in-3-d-still-an-enchantment/ "undefined"), _The Lion King_ and [the Tim Burton _Alice in Wonderland_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1969725,00.html%20 "undefined"); direction by the Oscar-winning production designer of _Avatar_ — all in the service of reimagining a beloved fairy tale with a true-love twist. What could possibly go wrong? Nearly everything, in _Maleficent_, a revisionist “origins story” of the sorceress in Disney’s 1959 animated feature _Sleeping Beauty_. Except for Angelina Jolie, exemplary as the fairy badmother who laid a narcotic curse on an infant princess, this pricey live-action drama is a dismaying botch. Robert Stromberg, the expert draftsman in his debut as director, has no mastery of casting and guiding actors, little sense of narrative pace or build and — the big, sad surprise — a leaden sense of visualizing Maleficent’s fairyland. Full of spells and transformations, the movie couldn’t be less magical. Borrowing from the novel and [Broadway musical _Wicked_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1006179,00.html "undefined"), which gave a redemptive backstory to _The Wizard of Oz’_s Witch of the West, scriptwriter Linda Woolverton argues that the young Maleficent (Isobelle Molloy as a child, Ella Purnell as a teen) was a sweet, grave girl — an elfin aristocrat who, in other circumstances, might have grown up to be a wise queen like [Galadriel in _The Lord of the Rings_](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1006179,00.html "undefined"). But instead of Aragorn she met the human Stefan (Michael Higgins as a boy, Jackson Bews as a teen and Sharlto Copley as an adult). This dashing lad won Maleficent’s love and, ambition overwhelming ardor, clipped and stole her wings to become the king of a neighboring realm. Bastard! To revenge herself on the man who unleashed her Wicked side, Maleficent barges into the christening of King Stefan’s daughter Aurora and proclaims her famous curse: that on the girl’s 16th birthday she will prick her finger on a sewing-wheel needle and fall into a coma, breakable only by “true love’s kiss.” The King sends the infant into the Witness Protection program of three nattering fairies (Isabelle Staunton, Lesley Manville and Juno Temple) whose cottage is monitored by Maleficent’s shape-shifting servant Diaval (Sam Riley). **(SEE:** [**13 Disney Princesses and the Actresses Who Voiced Them**](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/27/14-disney-princesses-and-the-actresses-who-voiced-them/ "undefined")**)** At first Maleficent thinks the baby is “so ugly you could almost feel sorry for it.” But over the years in the forest, Aurora grows into a lovely teen (Elle Fanning) who calls Maleficent her fairy godmother. She just might steal — as the woman who cursed her says — “what was left of my heart.” Cared for by three fairies who are, at best, dotty aunts, a girl alone needs a mother figure, and finds it in Maleficent. (Aurora at five is played by the star’s daughter Vivienne Jolie-Pitt.) The warmth she can provide is chilled by the knowledge that she is the one who, long ago, doomed her one loving alliance. Producer Joe Roth — who also shepherded the live-action versions of _Alice in Wonderland_ and [_Oz the Great and Powerful_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/03/06/oz-the-great-and-powerful-mostly-its-wicked-bad/ "undefined") through Disney, and _Snow White and the Huntsman_ at Universal — rightly recognized Jolie’s kinship to Maleficent, declaring that “There was no point in making the movie if it wasn’t her.” He was alluding to the star’s dominant, regal otherness. **(READ: Corliss on** [**Angelina Jolie in** **_Wanted_**](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1818519,00.html%20 "undefined")**)** She almost might have been designed in some special-effects shop to play Maleficent. And Rick Baker’s makeup artistry does her and the character proud, with curling, leathery horns and dark diagonal slashes on her cheekbones that sculpt her face into diamond-shaped severity. To the wolf eyes and Morticia Addams pallor, Jolie brings an imperious vocal styling with echoes of Bette Davis. (Eleanor Audley voiced Maleficent in the animated feature.) She is the visual, aural and behavioral embodiment of an otherworldly goddess capable of anything, from poisonous curses to surrogate-mother love. **(READ:** [**The sorry state of mothers in Disney animated features**](http://time.com/53766/movie-moms-pixar-disney/%20 "undefined")**)** Other than Jolie’s grandeur, and a bit of Fanning’s freshness, the movie’s got nothing. It takes its design cue from sword-and-sorcery films in their sepulchral early-’80s phase (_The Dark Crystal_, _Legend_) but fails at its evocation of enveloping murk. When it tries for lightness of image, with the appearances of fairyland sprites, the creatures are wan, unbeguiling and poorly integrated into the surrounding flora. Lightness of touch is also missing; _Maleficent_ didn’t have to go the parody route of [_The Princess Bride_](http://content.time.com/time/specials/2007/article/0,28804,1665692%5F1665693%5F1683957,00.html "undefined") (which also had a full measure of enchantment), but a little knowing levity would have given the characters life outside of their stereotypes. Roth and Disney knew their project had problems; they enlisted John Lee Hancock, director of [_The Blind Side_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/12/saving-mr-banks-when-movies-lie-and-make-you-cry/ "undefined") and [_Saving Mr. Banks_](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/12/12/saving-mr-banks-when-movies-lie-and-make-you-cry/ "undefined"), to rework the early scenes and add a ton of narration (voiced by Janet McTeer). Apparently no one could fix the clumsy comedy of the fairy trio, or the minimal impact on Aurora of two royal deaths, and least of all the unfortunate casting of Copley. The South African actor, so comically poignant as the lead in Neil Blomkamp’s _District 9_ (his first feature role), lacks the traditional skills needed for a fairy-tale hero turned villain. Nor did anyone attend to anomalies in Maleficent’s powers. She can change Diaval into any creature, from crow to dragon, except when, toward the end, she can’t. Her imposing wings get sawed off, until they get magically and capriciously reattached. **(READ: Corliss’s** [**review of Neil Blomkamp’s** **_District 9_**](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,1916306,00.html "undefined")**)** The Disney people ought to know how to tell this story — of a female with frightening powers, finally battling to save the princess who suffers from her curse — because they just did it. Anyone remember _Frozen_? That animated wonder had the forces of good and evil at war in the same character, plus a love story, smart laughs and a hit song that ran through everyone’s internal iPod for months. **(READ:** [**Why** **_Frozen_** **Was Totally Thaw-some**](http://entertainment.time.com/2013/11/23/frozen-this-disney-princess-movie-is-thaw-some/ "undefined")**)** _Maleficent_ ends with [Lana Del Ray](http://time.com/11728/lana-del-rey-young-and-beautiful-oscar-snub/ "undefined") singing the original film’s “Once Upon a Dream” (based on Tchaikovsky’s _Sleeping Beauty_ waltz) in a droning tone that suits this production. It’s a requiem, a dirge, for a lifeless movie. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/"},"headline":"REVIEW: Maleficent: Sympathy for the Rebel","datePublished":"2014-05-29T19:26:03.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-21T08:06:41.575Z","description":"Angelina Jolie brings her otherworldly majesty to the villainess from Disney's Sleeping Beauty, but this live-action revisionist update is a dismaying botch","url":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/","keywords":["movies","Angelina Jolie","Maleficent"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3055c7d5ad02b08f/6986901c3bc99967861a38e5/maleficent-albarran_dock.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Richard Corliss","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/richard-corliss/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt3055c7d5ad02b08f/6986901c3bc99967861a38e5/maleficent-albarran_dock.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Angelina Jolie","caption":"Angelina Jolie","creditText":"Frank Connor—AP/Disney","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/movies/","name":"movies"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/","name":"REVIEW: Maleficent: Sympathy for the Rebel"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Behind the Scenes of Maleficent","description":"More than 60 years after cursing Princess Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent is finally getting a chance to tell her side of the story.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/dOYsgY8j/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-05-27T18:44:44.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/dOYsgY8j.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/","duration":"PT1M47S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/136170/maleficent-movie-review-angelina-jolie/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```