New Angelina Jolie ‘Maleficent’ Movie Received Mixed Reviews From Major Critics
Walt Disney Pictures released their new Angelina Jolie branded fantasy flick, “Maleficent,” into theaters today, May 30th, and all the reviews from the top movie critics are in. It turns out that it just seems to be ok,getting mixed reviews with an overall 56 score out of 100 across 38 reviews at Metacritic.com.
The movie stars: Angelina Jolie, Sharlto Copley, Elle Fanning, Sam Riley, Imelda Staunton, Juno Temple, and Lesley Manville. We’ve supplied blurbs from a few of the critics,below.
Joe Neumaier at the New York Daily News, gave it a great 80 score, stating: “Angelina Jolie is so wickedly enchanting in the magical, magnificent Maleficent, you may not notice how transporting this female-driven blockbuster really is.”
Sheri Linden from the The Hollywood Reporter, gave it an 80. She stated: “A few bumpy patches notwithstanding, the new feature is an exquisitely designed, emotionally absorbing work of dark enchantment.”
Matt Zoller Seitz from RogerEbert.com, gave it a 75. He said: “The movie is a mess, but it’s a rich mess. It has weight. It matters.” Mick LaSalle from the San Francisco Chronicle, gave it a 75, stating: “Maleficent imparts a feeling of enchantment. Here is a world that’s strange and beautiful.”
Betsy Sharkey from the Los Angeles Times, gave it a 70 score, saying, “Though it never plays like a polemic, the film has so much it wants to say the emotional power that might have made it a classic is undercut.”
Keith Staskiewicz from Entertainment Weekly, gave it a 67, stating: “The characters are boiled down to their essentials, the humor is timelessly broad, and Jolie’s at her best when she’s curling her claws and elongating her vowels like a black-sabbath Tallulah Bankhead.”
Tom Russo at the Boston Globe, gave it a 63. He said: “While this is Jolie’s show, obviously — and she’s terrifically arch — the surprising dearth of other compelling characters doesn’t offer much distraction when things get off track.”
Michael Phillips at the Chicago Tribune, gave it a 63 grade. He stated: “This is almost entirely Angelina Jolie’s show…this is a performance that goes from point A to point B without seeming rote, or ho-hum.”
Manohla Dargis at The New York Times, gave it a 60, stating, “Consciously or not, coherently or not, Maleficent tells a new kind of story about how we live now, not once upon another time. And it does so by suggesting, among other things, that budding girls and older women are not natural foes, even if that’s what fairy tales, Hollywood and the world like to tell us.”
Claudia Puig at USA Today, gave it a 50 grade. She said: “It fails to live up to its early promise, mostly because of an uneven tone and murky character development.”
Andrew Barker at Variety, gave it a 50 score. He said: ” Uncertain of tone, and bearing visible scarring from what one imagines were multiple rewrites, the film fails to probe the psychology of its subject or set up a satisfying alternate history, but it sure is nice to look at for 97 minutes.”
Lastly, Peter Travers over at Rolling Stone, gave it a pretty bad 38 score, stating: “Jolie comes to this party ready to bite, but the movie muzzles her. Even at 97 minutes, Maleficent is still one long, laborious slog.” Stay tuned. Also, get your favorite Movie stuff, and more by Clicking Here.
