Maleficent: Mistress of Evil is a
cynical sequel that discards every-
thing that made its predecessor
work. At the conclusion of the first
movie, Maleficent was no longer
positioned as a villain, a stum-
bling block this sequel gets out
of the way with a condescending
voice-over that essentially tells us
the writers couldn’t come up with
a clever way of getting around
this so you’re just going to have
to indulge their lack of imagina-
tion. It’s the first sign that this is a
movie nobody really wanted to
make, but the 2014 movie made
so much money that everyone was
contractually obliged to deliver a
sequel.
The bare-bones plot bor-
rows heavily from the sixth Star
Trek movie, as Maleficent’s god-
daughter Aurora (Elle Fanning) be-
comes engaged to human prince
Philip (Harris Dickinson), much
to the disapproval of the latter’s
mother, Queen Ingrith (Michelle
Pfeiffer), who is far from happy
Watch the trailer for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
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