Maleficent

This latest Disney instalment of the Sleeping Beauty fairytale is even more magical, epic and spectacular than the last one made in 1959. Although nowhere near as terrifying as that first animated film, where just the musical score could send a chill down my spine and the wicked fairy, Maleficent with her deathly pallor and evil cackle, was the very epitome of evil.  This was a character who was purely evil, there was no motivation or subtext to her actions;  whereas in this re-visioning of the classic fairytale we first meet Maleficent as a young orphaned fairy girl surrounded by beautiful, mystical creatures in her fairy realm of The Moors.  Giving Maleficent a past completely humanises the character so that she is no longer just an evil being and the history with King Stephen explains her vengeful curse.

Gone is the deathly pallor of the cartoon version, in fact the adult Maleficent, played by Angelina Jolie has glowing white skin and though she may still have the angular face with remarkably high and defined cheekbones, it is not a harsh face.  This visage is absolutely mesmerising, particularly the caramel green eyes and the full red put.  It is little wonder Mac make up is selling a Maleficent range and with a dazzling red lipstick, when her lips are such a distraction in the film.

The acting was superb throughout the whole film, with the enchanting princess Aurora played by Elle Fanning and faithful servant Diaval played by Sam Riley as the main supporting characters, along with Sharlto Copley as the King.  There was also appearances from Juno Temple, Imelda Staunton and Lesly Manville as the three good fairies who endeavour to raise the young princess.  A particularly special scene involves one of Angelina Jolie's own children, little Vivienne Jolie-Pitt plays the infant Aurora adoringly approaching her mother whose appearance was apparently scaring all the other children on set, this added to the playful nature of the story and also added to the loving nature of the princess.

Some people have criticised the film for relying on Angelina Jolie to carry the film, but it is called Maleficent, and should therefore be about this character; her magnificent performance and beguiling beauty do not detract from the original and clever story.  It follows on from Frozen’s modern theme that women and young girls do not need to rely on men; that relationships between women are just as vital and substantial.  Female empowerment and sisterhood is at the core of the film and it is fantastic to see such a strong, powerful female character and to know that these kind of roles emerging for women in film and TV.

Rating 9.5/10

Armageddon

I am embarrassed to admit that I have only recently watched Armageddon for the first time, I developed a slight fear of meteorites after watching Deep Impact at a young age and it definitely debilitated my film viewing for the subsequent years.  However meteorites is the only thing the two films share, otherwise Deep Impact does not even compare to Armageddon; it consists of a brilliantly formulated plot with a great script and excellent casting.  

 It was straight in with the action and immediately had me hooked, the same went for the brilliant characters that you instantly loved.  Bruce Willis plays Harry Stamper, the “best oil driller in the world” and A.J, (Ben Affleck) is his young ingenue, they are multi faceted characters and this is evident from the relationships and interactions between them, from the beginning scenes where you see their working relationship to the end which reveals a father/son bond.  This is made stronger by their shared love of Harry’s daughter, Grace Stamper (Liv Tyler), nevertheless this love affair was not actually in the original script, they were written and filmed later in production apparently in a last minute bid to extend their audience and appeal to young girls.  

Steve Buscemi adds to the film like he does to every film he appears in, always a great character that is memorable above many others, sometimes even the main stars.  Although he claims that the role was pitched to him as a heroic geologist which he gladly accepted in a move away from the usual lowlife’s he portrays, but after taking on the role the sleazy characteristics were written into the script.  When his character, Rockhound gets space dementia and starts acting dangerously, he is wrapped in duct take, which is actually NASA protocol for immobilising an unstable member of crew.

I thought the special effects were of a high standard for 1998, you would hardly even notice that the film was 16 years old.  This was probably aided by NASA’s compliance with the producers, allowing them to film in the normally restricted space agency, which included the neutral buoyancy lab, a 40 foot deep, 65 million gallon pool used to train astronauts for weightlessness and the use of two 10 million dollar space suits.  Although NASA obviously had some involvement in the filming they clearly did not offer any advice for the actual plot or protocol in space; they now show the film during their training management programme and ask new managers to spot as many errors as possible, of which there are at least 168.

The director, Michael Bay thinks that he had to rush the ending and feels like he did not do the film justice, but I think it is an excellent movie that works even though it may have a slightly unbelievable premise.  Ben Affleck apparently questioned the likelihood of the film when talking to Michael Bay, “Wouldn’t it be easier for NASA to train astronauts how to drill rather than training drillers to be astronauts?” To which he responded, shut up.

Rating: 8/10