This is a weekly meme that I am hosting here at Reviews from a Bookworm. I own over 500 books, I'mn a book blogger so it's kind of obvious that I love books. But the one thing I own more of than books is DVDs, I love movies, TV shows, musicals. So I think it's time to include a weekly movie review on the blog. To take part all you have to do is share a movie review once a week, link back to Reviews from a Bookworm and add your link to the linky tool.
This weeks movie review will be for:
Maleficent
I have seen quite a lot of people praising Maleficent and talking about how much they loved it. It made me start to question my own opinion and maybe I had been too harsh. But, I hadn't, this movie just wasn't to my liking and I didn't feel too satisfied with it when I left the cinema. Maleficent is probably my favourite Disney villain and I was so excited to finally get her back story. Angelina Jolie is a talented actress and I think she played the part to perfection. But, in my opinion, the script and plot just wasn't strong enough and she outshone it all. I am definitely in the minority with this opinion so, if Maleficent is something you are looking forward to seeing, still give the movie a chance as you will probably love it. I am clearly just a terribly moody person and wanted it to end horribly. To be fair, both my friends ended up not liking it either - so, technically, I'm not alone.
I urge you all to still go see it if it's something you're excited to see. Apparently we just wanted a dark, miserable film where Maleficent was as evil as she was in the original. I know a lot of you have seen and loved it, so I'm sure you will never be able to trust my movie judgement again, but I can't deal with all the lovey dovey stuff that's in this film.
Damn you, Disney! Maleficent is a V.I.L.L.A.I.N
Maybe my biggest issue with it is that I was expecting something darker and more sinister. Don't get me wrong, I know this is Disney and have come to expect happy, happy, happy but the trailer for this had felt darker than most Disney films. Sadly, it's yet another misleading trailer that hides that this is a rather cheesy, lovey dovey movie at it's core. I was expecting this to be a story of how Maleficent became the villain we came to know and love from Sleeping Beauty. Not the story of how Sleeping Beauty was all a lie and Maleficent is actually the good guy. I love the woman, but I wanted her kicking arse and taking names. Sorry, not sorry.
They made Maleficent do a Grinch! Nooooooooooo!!!
The film shows us the story of how Maleficent went from a happy, winged fairy to the dark, bitter, wingless villain we met in Sleeping Beauty. Maleficent lives in the Moors, which is her magical home that borders along a human kingdom. As a child she meets Stefan, who is a peasant, and the two become great friends. As they grow older he becomes more interested in gaining favour with the King, who has no heir and is looking for someone to prove their worth in order to take his place. Maleficent falls in love with Stefan and is devastated when he betrays her in order to convince the King that he has killed her and, in doing so, gain the throne. This changes Maleficent, who has lost so much more than just her wings. After this it begins to go into the general storyline of the original movie - the King has a daughter, Maleficent curses her and they try to hide her to prevent the curse from coming true.
One thing that did end up bothering me, which may sound really weird, is the casting of Elle Fanning as Aurora. She's a really pretty girl but I don't think she had the right look for a girl who has had a spell cast on her that gives her the gift of beauty. I just expected the character to be a lot more beautiful, but that's probably because I keep thinking back to the original Disney film. My friend came out saying the exact same thing and when I spoke to my sister she commented on it as well. Acting wise I thought she was okay but I never really believed her as Aurora at all. I don't know what it was but she never clicked for me. I think part of it was the accent, which sounded rather strange and bugged me the whole movie.
Super creepy!
Special effects in this weren't actually that impressive to me. There were some aspects that were incredibly well done but, compared to other movies I have seen recently, the special effects over all were pretty disappointing. From Maleficent's flying to whatever they were trying to accomplish with the three fairies. It just didn't work for me. They looked like those bobblehead dolls you can get. Also, why did the three fairies need to have there names changed from the original Disney film? I also wondered why one fairy never gave Aurora a gift in the end, she sort of forgets all about it. I also feel that, in a movie where they make a villain a hero, it's no coincidence they have Imelda Staunton as Knotgrass, the pink fairy - as she played Umbridge in HP who was a villain who wore pink.
I loved the introduction of Diaval, who plays the role of Maleficent's raven. In this she saves his life and uses her powers to transform him into human form, in return he pledges to serve her for life. He becomes the person she confides in and who she uses to help keep track of King Stefan and Aurora. He was a brilliant character, but for the longest time I thought he might end up being Aurora's true love in the end. Not sure why I thought that but I did. Freaked me out a bit as he's technically a bird / old guy but still. I fell in love with that character in the end and sort of wanted him to be her true love. I'm clearly a terrible person! I shipped them people, I shipped them! Actually, I think I just shipped Diaval, he could have got with himself and I would have been happy.
There is no arguing that Maleficent steals the show, without such a brilliant performance than I probably would have been as out of it as Aurora was for most of this movie. In my opinion, the script is really lacking and I wasn't completely satisfied with the lovey dovey ending. I love happy endings so I don't get why I was so unhappy with this one, I just was. I am actually scared to see what they do with the live action version of Beauty and the Beast after this, they'll probably have Beast killed at the end and Beauty marries Gaston. I shudder at the thought.
6/10 Butterflies
It's not a terrible film but it's just not the film I was hoping to see. This wasn't nearly dark enough. I didn't want to see Maleficent getting feelings, I wanted to see her become the villain. I loved Sleeping Beauty's Maleficent and think Angelina Jolie did such a brilliant job playing her. I hate that it seems people's grumbles about the bad messages Disney sends (it doesn't) have got to them. They made this a movie all about women but made the men subservient or power hungry or liars or manipulative or just completely useless. How is that any better? I admit that Angelina Jolie did a fantastic job and was my favourite part of the whole film. I also really loved the character of Diaval and fell in love with that character a little bit.
Next Week:
The Fault in Our Stars
The one that's based on a book, obviously!
I have been meaning to take part in both of the following memes for a while now, so its nice to finally be able to get to them. I will be taking part in Reading is Fun Again's Thoughtful Thursday and Okay, Let's Read's Thursday Thoughts, picking between them or doing both topics each week.
Rereads
Do you/have you ever reread books/a book? What do you look for when rereading a book? What have you found in the way of changes in your opinions when you reread a book, any? What books have you reread, if any? Would you ever reread a book that you didn't like the first time around?
Okay, before I started blogging I was a huge rereader. If I read something and absolutely love it then of course I am going to want to reread it. Ever since Harry Potter & the Philosopher's Stone came into my life I have reread the HP series every year during Summer, last year being the first time I couldn't do it, which sucks. I am hoping to find the time to do it this year because I miss HP in my life.
I haven't ever really considered rereading a book that I didn't like because I didn't see my opinion changing. But, I did reread TFIOS and my opinion changed a lot. The first time I read it, I enjoyed the book but I didn't love it as much as everyone else seemed too and I didn't cry once. But, with the movie coming out, I decided to try it again and loved it so much more this time and I had tears in my eyes so much whilst reading it this time.
I don't want to list the books I have reread because there are literally hundreds of them, I was a big rereader before I started blogging. I definitely want to try and make time for rereads because they are definitely great reads.
Book Boyfriends & Book BFFs
Do have a character crushes? Are there characters that you want to be your BFF?
Who doesn't have character crushes and books BFFs? Seriously, if there is someone out there that doesn't then there is something wrong with them. Naming all of the characters I have crushes on would be quite embarrassing for us all, it would be far too long for one thing. The first people that popped in to my mind were Roar from Under the Never Sky, Jace Garret from My Life Next Door and Ron from Harry Potter. Yup, I love Ron. I can't help it, I love that boy!
As for best friends forever? I don't know, that list would probably be even longer. It's not my fault though, there are far too many awesome characters in books to choose from.
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