When it
comes to Dreamworks films as of recent, the film that everyone seems to claim
is above some of the rest is “How To Train Your Dragon.” The film tells of a
young Viking named Hiccup, who only wants to be accepted by his father as a
noble warrior, during the times of dragon attacks. However, when Hiccup
encounters a night-fury he hit, he soon starts to befriend the creature,
showing us that they’re not as dangerous as everyone makes them out to be.
Needless to say, this is an example of a film that takes tired old clichés and
turns them into something new. We do see the prejudice authority figures and
liar revealed tropes, but the way the film handles them is really neat, and
really adds to some of the likability of each of these characters. Not only that,
but the animation is outstanding, showcasing just how far this animation studio
can go with their technology and beyond. While it isn’t my favorite Dreamworks
film, I still consider it among the best in its library.
Now
after four years, we have a sequel to this film. And seeing how Dreamworks has
had its share of doing both good AND bad sequels, where does this one stand?
Well, let me just say this…not only is this film better than the first…”How to
Train Your Dragon 2” is by and large, Dreamworks best animated film.
Five
years after the Vikings of Berk have allowed acceptance with the dragons, Hiccup
is told by his father, Stoick, that he’s ready to become the new chief. He
doesn’t believe his IS ready, and soon discovers the rise of a dragon army by
Drago Bludvist, a vicious dragon hunter, and tries to find him as a means to
negotiate. However, on the journey, Hiccup encounters someone who’d he never
thought to see leading a nest of dragons…his long lost mother, Valka. This film
manages to do what a good sequel should do, and that’s developing the story and
characters further than before. The way these characters interact with one another
not only feels genuine, but you can relate to them incredibly well. For a
sequel to an incredibly clichéd film, this really manages to blow any
expectations out of the water, with just how passionate and real it feels.
Not
only that, but this and its predecessor are two examples of doing celebrity
voice casts right. Unlike most big animated films like from Blue Sky Studios,
Dreamworks has us not see a bunch of celebrities in a recording booth, but
rather see these characters. I mean, this film alone has Jay Baruchel as
Hiccup, Gerard Butler as Stoick, Cate Blanchett as Valka, Djimon Hounsou as Drago,
and other celebrities like Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Craig
Ferguson, Kit Harrington, Kristen Wiig, T.J. Miller, and even America Ferrera, yet
I could barely tell if it was them or not. That just shows how good you can get.
One of
the things that really do make this film worth watching again is the mother-son
relationship between Hiccup and Valka. Despite being away for twenty years,
they manage to have this strong and powerful chemistry that makes it sweet and
heartwarming, much like Hiccup’s relationship with Toothless in the first film.
Speaking of which, the two still keep the friendship going well too, and they
even push it further with the theme of trust that goes on in this film. If you
see it for yourself, you’ll know what I’m talking about.
Now for
the main highlight of the film, the flying and battle scenes. Let me just say,
this proves to be Dreamworks best animation work, as you can see a lot of
detail and effort went into it, especially if the film’s in 3D. Screw “Avatar,”
THIS is the best 3D film of all time, and they take advantage of it way better
than others. But even without the 3D, it’s still amazing to look at. You feel
like you’re actually flying and on the battlefield. And with the flying and
battle scenes, the animation is still glorious to look at, especially with the
different designs of the dragon, including the alphas.
Overall,
“How to Train Your Dragon 2” is the must see film of the summer, and I can’t wait for the
third film! It not only stands as one of the best sequels ever made…it’s one of
the greatest films of all time! I love the characters, I love the story, I love
the animation…I just love this movie!
Let me
ask you guys something...these recent live-action re-visions Disney’s been
doing with their classics…are they really necessary? Not at all. They haven’t
really added anything new, other than answering people’s fantasy ideas as to
what popular actor looks like in a Disney film, and each film they attempted
at remaking in live-action has always turned out like crap. “101 Dalmatians,” “Alice
in Wonderland,” and now we have upcoming remakes of “The Jungle Book” and “Cinderella”
on their way next year! However, that torment will have to wait, as “Sleeping
Beauty” is taking its turn at a remake, this time told through the perspective
of Maleficent…since the film is called “Maleficent.”
In this
retelling of “Sleeping Beauty,” we see the origins of Maleficent, once being a
fairy that guarded the sacred land from humans. After an encounter with a young
boy, she soon warms up to him, only to be betrayed by him years later, so he
could rule over the kingdom. When he has his daughter, Aurora, Maleficent
places a curse on her so she’ll prick her finger on a spinning wheel, unless
awakened by true love’s kiss. As Aurora gets older, Maleficent starts to warm
up to her as time goes on, regretting the curse.
Just going to cut to the chase
here, this film was bad; I mean, really, really bad. In my mind, this is quite
honestly, the most over-hyped pile of trash I’ve seen PERIOD. When
you have the potential for a film to be amazing and you turn it into a flawed
mess that would make “Prometheus” gasp in awe, you’ve got a real big problem
here! I’m still surprised I was able to sit through this without considering
walking out half-way through.
Now
much like my “Endless Love” review, I’m just going to cut to the chase and get
down to the three biggest reasons why this film is absolutely awful:
#3: Hardly any character development – The characters
established in this film aren’t developed, except for being archetypes of
characters. And I know, the original film didn’t have much development either,
but this film is said to be an “adult” take on the classic. All this film did
with these characters was either make them stupid, pointless, or complete
assholes.
In terms of the stupid aspect, we have the three fairies
that take care of Aurora. Not only are they so goddamn incompetent, but they
just keep getting more and more annoying by the minute. In the original film,
yeah they were bumbling, but they at least knew what they were doing. To see
three enjoyable characters made unbearable is just sad to watch.
In the pointless category, we have Prince Phillip, who is so
underused in the film, that it’s only just a cameo. I know it’s not centered on
Aurora, but still there has to be something more than just, “oh hey, I’m the
prince from the story, bye.” All I was asking throughout the film was ‘why is
he here?’ every time he was onscreen.
And in terms of asshole characters, we have Aurora’s father,
King Stefan. All I need to say is he’s the reason Maleficent is evil. Yeah, I’m
not kidding. He steals her wings, because he wanted to be the heir to the king,
who is ALSO an asshole. Even when he becomes paranoid over his daughter, I didn’t
feel sympathy, because it was his entire fault! Even the fairies are kind of
dicks to Maleficent. They establish that Maleficent was sort of a guardian of
their land, yet when she’s flightless, they suddenly don’t like her? What the
hell is wrong with you people?!
The only development we get is from Maleficent herself, but
we’ll get to that when we get to that. That’s a big problem to have an
underdeveloped Maleficent, in a film CALLED “MALEFICENT!!” Not only that, but
Angelina Jolie’s performance was just not investing in the slightest. I’ll give
credits that she looks the part and is trying her best, but her performance in
this film is just so bland and unappealing, just as much as every other actor
in the film.
#2: Subplots not
brought up, or making no damn sense – There are dozens of things that the film
decides to bring up, but it either doesn’t go anywhere, or is resolved through
something completely irrelevant.
For example, how did Stefan become an orphan? Was that his
motivation to becoming heir? If so, how’d he even get as far as to be a servant
at the castle to hear about the reward?
Or how about this one: why did the fairies tell Aurora that
her father was dead? And when she goes to the castle,
how does she even know the guards will let her in, since they wouldn’t even
know what she looks like to begin with? She could have been a spy or something.
Why does Maleficent watch over Aurora, even when she knows
the curse will happen? And with the fairies being so incompetent, why would she
have bothered to take care of her for them? If she did start to warm up to her,
why didn’t she just take her away completely? And if the curse was irreversible,
why didn’t she just put her in a sleep like trance until the time had passed?
Or better yet, why didn’t the king send guards after Maleficent when she first
arrived to put the curse on her anyway?
Why is iron the weakness of fairies? In the original film,
the sword defeated Maleficent, because it was enchanted by the three fairies
that assist Phillip. If iron was all that was needed, then why the hell didn’t
they just guard the castle with…you know, GUARDS WITH IRON, than just an easy
to slip by iron thorn fence? This film would have been done sooner a good half
hour earlier, in what’s already an hour and a half movie.
#1: The film trying to be “Wicked” – For those who don’t
know, “Wicked” is a Broadway show, based on a novel, which is a prequel to “The
Wizard of Oz,” only it’s the story of the witches, Glinda and Elphaba. It shows
how Elphaba became the Wicked Witch of the West, and just how close she and
Glinda were before that day came. It’s one of those stories that allows you to
think sympathetic of villains you grew up with. Why does this bother me? Well,
that’s all because THIS ISN’T FUCKING “WICKED!!!!!!” If you wanted to make a “Wicked”
film, that’s fine, but make fucking “Wicked!” Trying to make a film similar to
that, only with Maleficent doesn’t work, because you’re doing a
sloppy revision of “Sleeping Beauty” with less of a point to it! Maleficent
is the embodiment of evil, showing she has power over others that no one could
possibly match. She’s one of Disney’s greatest villains for a reason; and to
see this film not only dwarf her abilities and make her the good guy…that’s
unacceptable. This is the same reason why "Texas Chainsaw 3D" was so insulting, because they turned an iconic villain into a misunderstood being. IT DOESN'T WORK!
Also I
have to point out this…“Maleficent” was written by Linda Woolverton, the same writer
of “Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland,” which was the first film Joe Roth
produced for Disney (he also produced this film as well). And after seeing this
film, I owe Tim Burton an apology, because “Alice in Wonderland” wasn’t
entirely his fault. No one could have made that script work, unless there was a
major re-write. Same goes for this movie, but “Alice in Wonderland” turned out
to be a much more faithful revision of a Disney classic than this! Even though
many of the characters were changed up drastically, it at least acknowledged
that this was Alice’s story, and that this was a completely different take. It
didn’t make us see the Queen of Hearts in her childhood having a hatred for the
White Queen and Mad Hatter, or anything stupid like that.
This
makes me sad, because Woolverton USED to be a magnificent writer for Disney.
Hell, she wrote the screenplay for “Beauty and the Beast,” and even helped develop
the screenplay for “Aladdin,” “Mulan,” and “The Lion King.” What happened to
her? Maybe if Joe Roth had hired someone else to come in and edit the script a
bit, like John Lee Hancock, it could have been a great film. But no…we’re left
with this horse shit.
If you
want a classic Disney film made more adult, just go watch “Snow White & the
Huntsman” or “Sleepy Hallow.” Those two films are more worth your time, and are
much better movies to begin with. Surprisingly enough, both those films are NOT
done by Disney, which should be a sign about these films.
Overall,
“Maleficent” flat out KILLED my love for a timeless villain, and was just flat
out unbearable to watch. I honestly thought I was watching a Michael Bay film,
where the visuals are the frosting over a crappy tasting cake. The performances
are either underwhelming, or flat out annoying; the script is atrocious; the direction
misses the mark; and it’s another example of a remake done horribly, HORRIBLY wrong.
And it is by far…the worst film Disney has ever given out! It even stands as
the worst film I’ve seen this year; and I sat through “Endless Love!”
In the words of the late, great, Roger Ebert:
Couldn't have said it better myself.
Rating: 1/10
P.S. No, I’m not interested in “Cinderella” coming out next
year. Even if it has Kenneth Branagh directing, I know it’s going to suck.
