Maleficent: Mistress of Evil's reviews
Media reviews
Indiewire
For younger viewers, the ?Maleficent? movies are certainly a gateway drug to more complex cinematic experiences, but in other ways they invite complex discussions around the dinner table. The war between humans and fairies sets the stage for debate about opposing races jockeying for dominance, but the metaphor grows murkier as it moves along.
USA Today
While it can?t escape some of the inherent tropes, ?Mistress of Evil? ventures past the usual ?happily ever after? rigmarole to craft a tale of parents and kids thematically similar to those Disney Channel ?Descendants? teen movies: There?s a fine line between hero and villain, and it?s OK to be a little bad sometimes.
Empire
Once again the plot is over-stuffed; too many scenes focus on cutesy fairy folk, and the competing philosophies of the two dark fae men are not always distinct. It?s sad because Maleficent herself is interesting, always at war with her own tendency to distrust, to attack, to lash out.
The Guardian
The main problem is that the film gradually collapses, as if in a sort of storytelling entropy, into a final battle ? like an awful lot of MCU movies. What began as a visceral contest of personalities, with actors given interesting or funny things to say or do, becomes a big CGI warfare scene: a clash of digitally created armies making for a big ho-hum spectacle.
Variety
Pfeiffer?s doing her best with a ridiculous role (for a sense of the missed potential, compare with the vain sorceress she played in ?Stardust?), and Fanning gets to be a bit more proactive than previous princesses, but the story?s still a mess.