Favourite Film of Summer 2014

The film I am choosing to write about is Maleficent , which has been met with mixed reviews from film critics but had great success in the box office grossing over $743 million globally. In this piece I am going to address and analyse three key elements of the film as well as offering my own opinion of it.

The story of Maleficent is what really makes it a very unique film. Whilst based on the traditional Sleeping Beauty fairy tale Maleficent is a fresh take and a new twist. Instead of focusing on Aurora by shifting the main storyline onto Maleficent and telling it from a different point of view, an entirely new level of depth and character development is given to the film. In addition to making Maleficent the central character the way in which the story is told completely changed. By making the film into a much darker , more twisted, almost Tim Burton esque style of story telling a person's entire perception of the Sleeping Beauty tale is changed also. This new darker, gothic approach to the tale is much more fitting to Maleficent's character and the mythos that surrounds her.

Much like the story telling, the cinematography in Maleficent is also incredibly dark and gothic but at the same time remain beautiful and a pleasure to watch both for it's aesthetics and the way in which it was shot. The use of darker cinematography mirrors the story and the nature of the characters creating a deep, rich and believable world. In addition to this, the way the film was shot, especially the long shots, wide shots and sweeping shots show off much of the world making for a much more immersive experience.

One of the major themes in Maleficent is that of survival. Not survival in terms of fending for yourself in the wilderness but more in terms of moving on from a traumatic experience and coming back stronger. One particular scene in the film, where Maleficent is drugged by the King and stripped of her wings whilst unconscious and against her will is symbolic of a rape. However rather than portray Maleficent as a victim (which of course she was), throughout the rest of the film Maleficent goes onto regain her sense of self, become stronger than ever before and reclaim who she is in spite of the trauma that had happened to her. This gives off a positive and hopeful message by showing that whatever traumatic experiences a person may go through they can also come back stronger than ever before.

I personally enjoyed Maleficent because it presented a classic fairy tale from a much darker angle and was not a typical fairy tale. The film also showed that even though someone is shown to be a villain, that that is only one side of the story, the side you get from Sleeping Beauty but this films gives the other side of that story. The film is also a love story but with a twist, it does not follow the tropes of a traditional romantic love story but instead focuses on a platonic, nurturing kind of love between Maleficent and Aurora.