I don’t want to fairy-tale-reimagining-sequel you guys out, but the truth is right after I watched THE HUNTSMAN: WINTER’S WAR I decided it was a good time to knock out MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL too. I almost didn’t want to post about it, because there is no dignity in being a “not all Disney live action remakes are bad” person, but the truth is I remembered liking the first MALEFICENT when it came out in 2014, so I always meant to see the sequel.

I suppose there’s a distinction that it wasn’t a straight remake of SLEEPING BEAUTY, but a WICKED-inspired revisionist spin-off where it turns out those jerks got the iconic villainess all wrong, she’s another woman who got screwed over and demonized and she’s actually pretty cool if you get to know her. As crazy as it may sound I remember it being structured like a rape-revenge movie, with Maleficent’s prince cutting off her wings as the violation to be avenged. (Yes, in live action she has wings. Also horns. I always thought that was just a weird hat.)

Well, now Maleficent has her origin, the king is dead, the beauty is awake, and I’m kind of surprised how much mileage they get out of “what’s next?” After the not-your-mother’s-Snow-White of THE HUNTSMAN it’s nice to see some yes-this-is-like-the-old-Disney-movies enthusiasm for bright colors, fanciful creatures and shit. There’s more of that in the opening ten minutes of MISTRESS OF EVIL than in all of THE HUNTSMAN. After a prologue about people in the woods at night trying to capture a toadstool-headed fairy (Fantasyland truffle hunters), we’re reintroduced to Aurora (Elle Fanning, SOMEWHERE), now “Queen of the Moors,” convening a meeting of all the magical pixies, talking animals and walking trees of the forest.

A rascally little hedgehog creature whose name I forget steals her thorny crown in what turns out to be a set up for a marriage proposal by her charming boyfriend Prince Philip. I forgot that Brenton Thwaites (OCULUS) played the character in the first movie but I was shocked that now he was Harris Dickinson, who I know from TRIANGLE OF SADNESS and treating Nicole Kidman like a dog in BABYGIRL. I didn’t realize he had a past as a Disney hunk.

Part of this is a wedding movie – Aurora treats Maleficent (Angelina Jolie, THOSE WHO WISH ME DEAD) as her mother, and Maleficent objects to the marriage. She sometimes wears earth tones now but she’s still a born villain, harsh in both manner and facial structure, introduced perched on a cliff, annoyed by the news from her sometimes crow, sometimes human minion Diaval (Sam Riley, PRIDE + PREJUDICE + ZOMBIES). But she wants Aurora to be happy so she agrees to meet the parents – to have dinner with Philip’s parents, King John (Robert Lindsay, WIMBLEDON) and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer, DANGEROUS MINDS) of Ulstead, a nearby kingdom that still fears Maleficent. I guess they’ve only seen the SLEEPING BEAUTY version of the story.

The sweet part of the movie is Aurora’s love and acceptance of Maleficent while knowing others fear her. Before the dinner she offers Maleficent a veil to cover her horns, in case it makes her or others more comfortable. Aurora starts to back pedal as soon as it leaves her mouth, but Maleficent politely accepts. Making peace! Making an effort! Maleficent!

Aurora will come to regret the suggestion, but first she has a nice moment making up for it. Their group arrives at the castle walking across a bridge of tree roots growing in front of them magically. She sees the locals freaking out, even screaming, but she holds her head high. Fuck yeah, this is my cool goth mom. This is how we roll. Shove your satanic panic up your ass.

What really works about this sequel for a while is that whenever it seems to settle in to a type of movie it tends to switch it up unexpectedly. When we’re ready for the dinner to be all about Addams Family type jokes about Maleficent freaking out the normies she gets so offended by a comment that she unleashes her sorcery in a non-comedic manner, causing everyone to believe she put a sleeping curse on the King. Another one is that it seems like the Queen will be the uptight mom trying to break up the marriage, then she opens a secret passage and goes underground to an evil lair where her toadie Lickspittle (Warwick Davis, SKINNED DEEP) is experimenting on the poached fairies and luminescent flowers to create the fairy tale equivalent of Judge Doom’s “Dip.” She actually wants the wedding to happen as part of an evil plot.

One funny touch is that Philip woke up Aurora in part 1 by kissing her, so he tells his mom that’s all she has to do to wake up Dad, just a kiss of true love. Uh, there might be a problem with that, kid. I didn’t want you to find out like this. Anyway, the Queen’s stooge Gerda (Jenn Murray, THE LAST JEDI) shoots Maleficent and she plummets into the ocean. But she’s not a Disney villain, so it doesn’t kill her!

Unfortunately the switch up that happens there takes the movie down a notch for me. Maleficent is rescued by some winged, horned men and learns she’s not the only one of her kind – there are many tribes of her fellow “Dark Fey” from different parts of the world hiding out in a cavern. I suppose taking away Maleficent’s uniqueness and isolation (and to make her choose sides) could be a way to challenge her, I just don’t think these warrior dudes are remotely as cool or fun to watch as her. Maleficent gets to crib from one of the greatest character designs in animation history, these guys just have horns and armor. And once again the great Chiwetel Ejiofor (SALT) gets stuck playing a fuddy duddy who speaks solemnly about Important Stuff, hoping Maleficent can be a bridge to create peace with the humans, before his more militant brethren led by Borra (Ed Skrein, REBEL MOON) take a more hostile approach.

I mentioned in the THE HUNTSMAN review that it was unusual for the genre because it gets better at the end instead of devolving into noisy battle. This is the regular kind. It culminates with the Fey flying in and attacking the castle. The effects are actually excellent, almost caught up to AVATAR part 1 at times, but to me a big war with Hawkman types is not what I want to see in a movie about Maleficent. It feels like we’ve gotten way the fuck off topic here.

It’s not all bad, though. I like that Gerda distributes the genocidal fairy dusty by playing an organ and blowing it out the pipes. And it’s cute that at the end there’s discussion of Maleficent coming to her future child’s christening. Remember, she originally cursed Aurora because she wasn’t invited to her christening. Lots of hurt feelings and drama over these christenings, you know. But I trust Aurora and Philip aren’t inviting her out of fear of what she’ll do. I think they really want her there. It gets better.

I enjoyed this one for its high volume of animated beasties, for the heartfelt princess performance by Fanning, and most of all – just like the first one – I just think it’s fun to watch Jolie play that character. She’s a monster who is very sure of herself and kind of into scaring the shit out of everybody because fuck those people but also kind of over it and just wanting to be able to live a peaceful life like she deserves. She looks cool, she seems to be having fun, she creates a character who is more cartoonish than a human but more human than a cartoon. The sweet spot.

The screenplay is credited to part 1 writer Linda Woolverton (BEAUTY AND THE BEAST), Noah Harpster & Micah Fitzerman-Blue (A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD). The director is Joachim Rønning, who co-directed KON-TIKI with Espen Sandberg, then they did PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES, which I somehow never saw. I loved the first three, but the fourth lost me. Anyway, Rønning is a company man now because his movies since then have been this, YOUNG WOMAN AND THE SEA and the upcoming TRON: ARES. I don’t know about those other two but I’d say this one has earned him his free Disneyland passes.