Maleficent · 4:12am Jun 4th, 2014
As the title implies, I went to see Maleficent the other day. My opinion? It was okay. Not great, but not terrible either. Honestly, the movie felt a bit rushed (although, given the time span covered in the movie, and the attendant necessary time skips, that was probably unavoidable. Still, at a short 97, an extra half hour could have helped), there were several characters I would have liked to see get more characterization, and the whole thing was bit, even the "surprise twist".
That being said, Angelina Jolie really knocked her performance out of the park (Is it weird I find her even more attractive in the creepy, somewhat inhuman makeup?). And most of the other actors were pretty good themselves, especially Elle Fanning as Aurora and Sharlto Copely as King Stefan(bad attempt at a Scottish accent aside.) Visually, the movie was very impressive, with some excellent special effects. And it had a dragon. That's always worth a few points in my book.
Overall, not a movie that's going to make you reevaluate your life, breakdown crying, or justify the ridiculously price of a theater ticket and popcorn, (although it may give, or in my case confirm a that I already had, some sort of wing fetish), but it's certainly a good way to kill an hour and half, and one I'd wholeheartedly recommend.
After the success of The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, et al... I'm still waiting for an Elric movie, dammit.
Casting the lead would be pretty difficult, in my opinion, but I think Anton Yelchin could make a good Moonglum.
2173230
I'm with you on that one, the Elric Saga would make a kick ass movie series. For Elric, I'd actually support Harry Lloyd. Yelchin really does look about how I'd imagined Moonglum. I know Moorcock has expressed an interest in seeing Elric brought to screen, so hopefully someday soon.
2173250
Upsides: Can act, kinda has the right look.
Downside: Is associated with Viserys, who was a little bitch.
2173285
Now that's hardly fair. Viserys was a massive bitch.
But that is one of the biggest stumbling blocks I can foresee for an Elric movie, you'd have a bunch of people who've never heard of Elric complaining that it's ripping off Game of Thrones. It's just like when Space Marine came out, and you had people claiming that it was ripping off Gears of War, despite 40K having been around since the 80s.
2173330
Well, in the equal interests of fairness, people would be saying that Elric ripped off all sorts of stuff that came after it and was influenced by it. I think you'd have to prominently say in the ad campaign that the stories were first published in the early '60s. "The movie you've waited half a century for!"
2173362
Very true, that. Saddest thing about Elric, so very influential, yet relatively unknown. That would be a great tag line for the trailers.
2173401
It's criminal.
2173406
Couldn't agree more. One of the pillars of modern fantasy, and so few people have actually hear of it. Well, at least Elric's in good company in that regard: Nobody's hear of Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser either. And Amber, there's another series that most people haven't heard of. And Dune, sure people have heard of it, but how many of them have actually read it? Then again, not reading seems to be a bit of trend nowadays.