'Underneath'
A place to talk about movies--old and new, good and bad, high art and high cheese. It's the place to place your kittens on the award winners, gossip about upcoming fims and discuss DVD releases and extras. Spoiler policy: White font all plot-related discussion until a movie's been in wide release two weeks, and keep the major HSQ in white font until two weeks after the video/DVD release.
So... anybody seen Malificent yet?
I really enjoyed it. The costumes and makeup were great, and I would have considered it worth the price of admission to stare at Angelina Jolie for an hour and thirty-eight minutes.
It's getting a lot of mixed reviews, but I have a feeling that it might be due to how explicitly feminist a movie it is.
IO9 reviews it as disappointingly anti-feminist, FTR. [link]
What I've seen is disappointment that she doesn't get to be just a woman who did bad from her own reasons. She has to have an angsty backstory and a Man Who Done Her Wrong.
I really, truly enjoyed Maleficent.
It was GORGEOUS in every way.
I think the creature design was heavily influenced by Brian Froud.
The themes of betrayal, cruelty and the tendency for some people to simply refuse to arrest their downward spiral...out of cowardice or inability...I don't know which.
I was amazed by how much of the film was dialog-free, and super atmospheric.
The only quibble my young companions (by young, I mean mid-30s) had was that the narration was not well voiced and pretty flat, writing-wise.
I can't dispute that at all, but it also seemed classically, old-school British. So, not necessarily a flaw.
IO9 reviews it as disappointingly anti-feminist, FTR
I don't feel like anyone has to agree with me on that point. To me, it's similar to Orphan Black in how it's intentional that the women have the most screen time and character development, and the men are on the side and not terribly useful.
I loved Angelina Jolie in Maleficent but I found the story disappointing.
the women have the most screen time and character development, and the men are on the side and not terribly useful.
Yes, that was cool.
I can't agree with that io9 article - I thought the movie was great. Calling it a revenge story against A Man is a vast oversimplification and honestly not the point.
Is Maleficent going to make me seethe with anger? Many people I know have thought it was great, but I'm very devoted to the idea of Maleficent being capriciously evil because she CAN be, not out of revenge. So, should I brace myself to go see it just for the pretty?
Jilli, I just saw it, and I think Connie's comment above covers my opinion. But it is VERY pretty.
A few more things:
1. Someone needed to tell the screenwriter it wasn't a good idea to give ALL the character beats and ALL the agency to one character.
2. The raven is cool.
3. Not a movie for people who want Prince Philip and/or the Fairy Trio to have good, meaty roles.
4. If there isn't a wave of dubcon femslash coming on the Disney kink meme, I will drop dead from shock.
5. There were at least two scenes towards the end where they could have put an Asian woman in among the soldier extras and apparently nobody thought of it. I am SO DISAPPOINT.