Maleficent (2014)
Evil has a beginning.
- Interesting creature design
- Mostly well handled CG usage
- Faeries don't like Iron (mythology! Woohoo!)
- Nice approach to blending the lines between hero/villain
- Scottish accents
- Generally pretty darn good acting
- Effective bouts of comedy
- Action scenes are pretty groovy
- Plot isn't pulling the wool over anyones eyes as far as surprises
- Some of the comedy can also get old
- Humans in a fantasy tale being greedy planet-killing mongrels, as is typical of humans
- Far less singing than standard Disney movie (not a downside for me, but most the fans of original Disney flicks probably will find it a negative)
Opinion
Worth a rental when it comes out on home video for sure, generally met with positive reactions from the crowd I saw it with in theaters. Don't know if I would pay full NY prices for 3D (I'm kind of partial to not paying a Blu-ray price to see something once), but fans of disney who want something a little less black and white may very well want to spend that kinda money. All in all, mileage will vary from person to person, but at (roughly) 10 bucks I'm certainly not feeling let down.