Nipping at the heels of yesterday’s poster comes the first trailer for Disney’s Maleficent starring Angelina Jolie. Revealing a CGI-heavy world too reminiscent of this year’s piss-poor Oz: The Great and Powerful, this latest in a string of live action adaptations of classic Disney tales looks to be just another in a long list of throwaway cash grabs. At one point, I remember thinking that both Oz and Snow White and the Huntsman looked like they had some promise but both ended up being some of the worst films that I’d seen all year. From this first look, I’m almost willing to already retire Maleficent into that category.
The biggest issues these slew of new age fairy tales face is that they try to be everything for everybody, balancing light and dark elements amongst a dump truck of special effects and C-grade humor that goes slightly over kids heads but is too dumbed down for adults to really enjoy. Although this first teaser trailer doesn’t showcase much of the goings on in the story, the setting itself is highly reminiscent of the landscape of those aforementioned films – not to mention the one that started it all, Tim Burton‘s Alice in Wonderland – and for it, I’ve lost any hope that this is anything but another cookie-cut slice of the Disney pie.
Visual effects guy Robert Stromberg will direct with John Lee Hancock (Saving Mr. Bank) apparently brought in to do some reshoots. A beautiful, pure-hearted young woman, Maleficent has an idyllic life growing up in a peaceable forest kingdom, until one day when an invading army threatens the harmony of the land. Maleficent rises to be the land’s fiercest protector, but she ultimately suffers a ruthless betrayal — an act that begins to turn her pure heart to stone. Bent on revenge, Maleficent faces an epic battle with the invading king’s successor and, as a result, places a curse upon his newborn infant Aurora (Elle Fanning). As the child grows, Maleficent realizes that Aurora holds the key to peace in the kingdom — and perhaps to Maleficent’s true happiness as well.
Maleficent is directed by Robert Stomberg and stars Angelina Jolie, Miranda Richardson, Imelda Staunton, Kenneth Cranham, Sam Riley, Sharlto Copley, Lesley Manville and Brenton Thwaites. It hits theaters on May 30, 2014.
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By: Matt Oakes
Started blogging about film in college when the university paper wouldn’t have him. Dislikes your consensus film Twitter favorites. Devotee of horror movies that make him die a little inside. Catches films at festivals when he can. Proud SFCS and OFCS member and Tomatometer-approved critic. Editor-in-chief of Silver Screen Riot.
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