Maleficient 2

I mostly enjoyed the Maleficent sequel, except for how many night scenes were de-saturated and blue-tinged. It probably looked even darker and duller in 3D. I wish they'd had more bright daytime scenes with color, not all this grim darkness. Oh, and I thought the tiny hedgehog and mushroom creatures were pointless cutseyness that should have been cut. I thought the three little fairies also were a bit annoying, and it took them forever to realize that somebody just needed to stop the person playing the church organ. But then we got a homage to how the fairies kept changing Aurora's dress pink and blue. At the wedding, the fairies change Aurora's wedding gown pink and green before settling on a pale powder blue. That made me smile, as a nod to the original animated Sleeping Beauty.


It was interesting seeing Maleficent interact with other "dark Fae" people, but too many of those scenes lacked dialogue, so I couldn't be sure what was happening. Like, when Conal got wounded and was laid down while surrounded by others chanting and doing magical stuff, I couldn't figure out if they were attempting to heal his wounds, or if this was the ritual to prepare for death; death apparently means they go into the ground and become sparkly flowers. (But if the Moors had so many of the flowers, and Maleficent said "this is where we bury our dead", that seems to imply that she did know other people of her same fairy race before. Or were we to understand that the sparkly flowers come from other Moorfolk, not just the dark Faes?) Also, why did magic flow from Conal to Maleficient when he did die? Was he transferring magic or memories to her? Why her and not someone in his tribe that he knew well? That's the problem with the movie not explaining its magic mythology very well. It needs to be clearer what's going on.

At first I thought they weren't going to explain why the legend of Sleeping Beauty still cast Maleficent as the villain, but late in the movie, Ingrith explained that she had deliberately spread the false version to make people fear Maleficent as evil, thus making her warmongering easier to implement. Also, Conal made what I thought was a throwaway line about Maleficient being special because she was descended from a "phoenix" type of Fae, but later we saw Maleficient rise from her own ashes, being a phoenix after all, even if she stayed black, and not the traditional fiery orange color of a phoenix. So that was a good callback. However, Ingrith confessed that her revenge was all about her brother disappearing on a diplomatic mission to the Moors, but we never got a followup about who that brother was, or whether the story of his death was inaccurate. In a way, it reminded me of how little explanation we got about Ravenna and the magic mirror in the Snow White and the Huntsman movies.

But overall I did find the movie pleasing and surprising in many ways. There were some hints that Maleficient might be attracted to the blond Fae guy who advocated for war, but instead of exploring that flirtation, the end of the movie showed Maleficient happily flying with all the kid Faes who hadn't been out of the cave before. It's nice to see her bond with those kids, while letting go of Aurora, now that she's married to Philip. So overall, I think the sequel was actually worth it, even though it's been years since the first film.