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Starring David Oyelowo
Starring Meryl Streep, Emily Blunt, and Anna Kendrick
Starring Christoph Waltz and Amy Adams
Disney, who seem to be on a kick of revamping their animated classics into forgettable live-action films, have put their trust in debut director Robert Stromberg, the guy largely responsible for the elaborate, soulless look of Oz the Great and Powerful and Alice in Wonderland. Maleficent suffers from the same sterility brought on by an overabundance of digital effects, bleeding into a story that fails to offer much of a human quality and not nearly enough of Angelina Jolie (and her awesome cheekbones!) vamping it up. That's not to say she isn't terrific because Jolie embodies Maleficent so utterly that it makes the film's deficiencies elsewhere all the more obvious, and those problems begin with the severe deviations from the source material.
The Maleficent we are treated to was a happy young fairy, living amongst the magical creatures of the Moors, a lush, natural fantasy land separated from the humans. With her powerful wings, Maleficent soars through the air and is innocent of heart until she encounters Stefan, a young human boy who wandered into the Moors to steal something. She should have taken the hint, but instead Maleficent and Stefan fall in love, enjoying one another's company until he grows older and obsessed with becoming king. In a shocking, too-disturbing-for-kids act of betrayal, Stefan (now played by Sharlto Copley) takes the one thing in the world she loves most so that he can attain the throne. 
It's at this point when the film briefly settles into normalcy and shines as Maleficent, all angry and literally green with rage, crashes a party at the castle celebrating the birth of Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning). Swatting aside the three nice-but-annoying fairies (Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, Juno Temple), she casts the familiar convoluted curse that would have Aurora pricking her finger on a spindle and falling into an eternal sleep, all by the age of 16. This is Jolie's truest moment to really show her wicked side, and she eats up the opportunity and goes in for a second helping. For a short while Stromberg and screenwriter Linda Woolverton (also of Alice in Wonderland) give the film a jolt of life that sadly goes missing the instant this scene draws to a close in a puff of green smoke.
From that point on it becomes abundantly clear that Disney never thought beyond the "let's make a Maleficent movie" stage because they fail to give the character a clear motivation. Aurora, now a teenager living with her three bumbling fairy guardians (Why are they morons, anyway?) is never given a personality to speak of. All we see of her is through the incompetence of her caretakers, and when they prove unable to watch over her it is Maleficent who, for reasons unknown, becomes her watchful fairy godmother. As Stefan sinks into a paranoid haze, Aurora and Maleficent are off bonding and playing with weird creatures, but really there is nothing of value going on for the entire second act. Little effort is made to show us what is going on inside the heads of either Maleficent or Aurora, confusing for a film that seems to exist largely to be a source of empowerment to young women. To that end the male characters, specifically the handsome Prince Philip (Brenton Thwaites), are refashioned entirely or shifted into the background. Sam Riley is decent comic relief as Maleficent's shape-changing raven, Dieval, and more than any other has a real connection with Jolie. 
Lee has always been one to walk to the beat of his own drum, and his version of Oldboy stands on its own while matching the intensity of the original. Breaking out all of his usual camera tricks, including his gliding "dolly shot", Lee adds a palpable grit to the sordid Kafka-esque mystery, a reminder that he is one of the great visual directors working today. It's to our benefit that he refrained from making this a shot-by-shot remake like so many others would have done to avoid controversy.
Brolin is a tougher, rough 'n tumble actor than Choi Min-Sik, the South Korean actor who played the protagonist in the prior film. Min-Sik's interpretation was more sympathetic, while Brolin's is grim and a little detached from reality. But as Joe gradually descends into madness, Brolin captures the true depths of his despair, and then his resolve to turn things around for the sake of his daughter....and sweet sweet revenge. Bulking up and refraining from alcohol, Joe finds himself suddenly released, left in a trunk in a field, and sets off for vengeance. Who should he aim his righteous anger at, though? That's just one of a myriad of puzzling mysteries at the heart of Oldboy, mysteries best left unspoiled.
The expertly stylized violence remains just as brutal as ever, and those with a squeamish side may want to go in on an empty stomach. Samuel L. Jackson, all bad hair and flashy outfits, plays a bad guy who ends up on the business end of Brolin's box cutter, while the famous hammer brawl is shot differently but is as ludicrously over-the-top as the original. Lee has truly embraced the story's more outlandish aspects and given the film a colorful, offbeat flourish to match. That extends to the casting of Sharlto Copley as Adrian Pryce, a mysterious figure whose spiffy dress and strangely effeminate cadence mark him as someone to be mocked, not feared. Chan-Wook's villain was a cold and fairly normal businessman, which made him more real and thus more terrifying. Elizabeth Olsen has one of the film's toughest roles as Marie, a warm-hearted but troubled woman who comes to help Joe out in his cause. The less said about her the better, but the nuance she brings to the character is crucial to keeping the story's grand reveal intact.
The film hits on most of the key points those familiar would come to expect, while also making a few key changes, some working better than others. The beginning is almost entirely new, and the decision to take us deeper into Joe's personality is a smart one, even if presenting him as a total jerk is curious. Learning about his background will pay dividends later, but making him look like a bad guy takes away from the impact of his vengeful transformation. And that conclusion, the one that shocked (and continues to shock) so many years ago is more demented and depraved, but telegraphed in a way it wasn't before. This is the unfortunate side effect of a story that takes everything to the extreme, that it forces us to imagine the most bizarre twist imaginable. And this film, if anything at all, is bizarre.
), Michael Nyqvist(The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
), and Anamaria Marinca(4 Months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days
). Daniel Wu(Around the World in 80 Days
) is on board as well. And three: Eugenio Caballero, production designer for Pan's Labyrinth
, will be doing the same for this film. That's good enough for me. 
. I'll be curious to see who the rest of the six-man crew turns out to be. Shooting is set to kick off later this fall in New York. [Deadline]
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