Thinking about "Maleficent"

So took the time to go see "Maleficent" starring Angelina Jolie. I'm a little bit of a fairy tale junkie though I tend to avoid the Disney versions as much as possible so I was interested to see how they were going to change the story.

Before I got there, I had my suspicions that Maleficent was going to be turned into an anti-hero. That seemed the most logical way to make her a somewhat likable character. It can be difficult to create a story centering on a villain that people will actually like. The only downside was, as I internally predicted, they gave her a tragic backstory to facilitate her turn to bitter and evil. I had been hoping they would find a better way to do that, but why fix what isn't broken, the trope works. It automatically makes the character at least somewhat sympathetic, a necessary quality.

One thing I did find very interesting was how Maleficent seems it have fallen victim to one of the pixies' gifts to Aurora, the gift of being beloved. Despite her desire to hate her, and her sometimes impatience with her, Maleficent finds herself just as charmed by the girl as everyone else. It gives her a chance to grow as a character, so much so that she wants to take away the curse and feels bad when it comes to fruition.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie with its good points and its flaws. They took a lesser used fairy tale (there are how many different versions of Cinderella and Snow White) and refreshed it.