Our First Look at Angelina Jolie as Maleficent [Wow]

Immense! She looks fanbloodytastic!

Bazinga.

Let’s take a second to break down her cheekbones. Is that stage putty (or whatever it is called) or is just terrific shadows? Because she has pretty spectacular cheekbones anyways, but I don’t think that could possibly be natural.

I’m floored at that image, but almost 100% stage putty and a lot of shadow it looks almost alien esque

Then she seduces the hero and changes into a dragon.

…what?

(More seriously, I expect good things from this attempt; and I know a friend, whom I gave the nickname Malificat, who will certainly be geeking over this. {g})

Wow. Amazing!

Have you seen Disney’s animated Sleeping Beauty? That’s basically what happens.

exactly how I pictured her!! I love it, and I’m glad this lady is playing this role, I think she’ll kill it.

Noice!! :D

But she doesn’t seduce Phillip. She lures him to the cottage because he’s just one more civilian she can make miserable. She just happens to be delighted to learn that Phillip is also Sleeping Beauty’s love.

Oh, yeah! No doubt Jolie will be great, but too classically beautiful to be this villain….needed an actress with the facial features closer to that of the comic…like Sarah Jessica Parker, who’s equally as beautiful but with patrician features. SJP played the beautiful witch in Hocus Pokus! That’s when I truly seen her as a great character actress and, the baddie is a character indeed. Still, I will go see Angie play the part because I loved her in Tomb Raiders.

Initially, I was pretty excited about this movie because Maleficent is one of my favorite villains, but the more I think about this, the less enthused I am. If they’re going to make this into a Wicked-esque portrayal of her, it makes Maleficent far less interesting of a character to me.

What I loved about her was that from the get go, it’s clear that Maleficent is a villain. She has no real reason for doing anything she does except for the fact that she’s a dark fairy. Choosing to curse the baby with death is over the top to begin with, but also because she wasn’t invited to a christening is even more so. And when it doesn’t happen, she spends 16 years trying to make sure it does, to the point where she faces down three fairies and a prince and dies.

Even when she lures Phillip and captures him, she only did it because she thought it’d be wonderful to capture and imprison some hapless peasant who was in love. She’s delighted to discover that Phillip’s identity just so happens to coincide well with Sleeping Beauty. What makes her such a bad-ass is that she is primordial evil–she does evil things because she can. Why NOT ambush and imprison some hapless peasant on his way to meet his lover? Why NOT destroy a king and queen’s beloved child?

I suppose for some, they desperately need to know why Maleficent would do all this evil, because they view her as a human character; she needs a humanistic motivation. But to me, what makes her fascinating is that when her actions have no clear reason, it indicates what a truly evil being she is. She’s NOT a human, like Elphaba. She’s actually a dark fairy. She has no need for a motivation to commit evil. She’s like the scorpion on the “Frog and the Scorpion” fable–it’s her nature. The concept of her jealousy at not being invited to Aurora’s christening is more interesting when she plays it as a thin reason, where she just needed an excuse to commit a terrible action. To make her human makes her less powerful and less interesting as a concept. 

Ursula is just a flamboyant sorcerous with a grudge, but Maleficent is the Mistress of All Evil. I’d expect such a person to commit evil not because she’s got an issue with some tiny mortal king, but just because she can and because she expects her actions and evil itself to always prevail.

I didn’t realize she would actually BE Maleficent from Sleeping Beauty down the exact costume! I assumed the movie was a reimagining more like Snow White and the Huntsman for some reason….

Does her headdress make anyone else think of Loki’s helmet?

 She’s evil cause it’s fun! Do you need any more reason?

A long time ago–too long to recall many details.

I have, however, much more recently and repeatedly seen (and own) the CGI Beowulf. Thus was very tickled to hear that Angelina had been cast as Maleficent. (I have much more sympathy for Grendal’s Mom than for most of the men in that movie, Beowulf’s best friend excepted. No doubt that was by conscious narrative design.)

 My thoughts exactly. There’s a reason she tops many of the “scariest Diney villain” lists and was a big baddie in the first Kingdom Hearts game. She literally calls on “all the powers of hell” to turn into a dragon. I always saw her as a female version of the devil.

Though I am keeing an open mind for the time being, if only because I’m enjoying this trend of fairy tale movies.

Actually you are completely wrong about the plot line.  It is about how Maleficent becomes the evil woman that she is … the story is about her and not about Aurora so much.

woah!! amazing! she makes an awesome villain. let’s see if she’s more evil than charlize theron…

http://www.thestylishgeek.com

 My author uncle once told me, “the hero thinks, the villain does.”  That’s why these stories don’t work, they put way too much time into the villain, at the expense of the hero, and the plot suffers as a result.

I’m sure she and Loki are a match in the Underworld. 

Yeah, but she’s a dark fairy who commands the powers of Hell. Why do we need to believe she was ever good to begin with?

I’m trying not to be too negative nancy about this, since I’m warmer to the idea than most, but if this ends up just giving her some sort of grudge issue as her entire reasoning for trying to kill a baby, I’ll just leave it where it is…

Right, because a classically beautiful woman can’t be evil. (/sarcasm)

I believe she really got the look of this, my favorite, Disney villain. I hope the story is just as good.

…. bah.  Now my brain’s trying to write fanfiction where Loki’s daughter Hel (ruler of the hell-equivelent in that mythos) sets him up on a blind date with Maleficent to cheer him up after the debacle in Avengers.

Before I was afraid of her looking a bit cheesy because not many people can pull off Maleficent’s look. But I have to say, she looks amazing!

Although, I suppose part of me really want’s her to look good because Maleficent is the most badass female villain disney has ever had, and among my favorites. I really don’t want this to turn out like a really nasty car wreck. The type where you want really badly just to look the other way, but you can’t because it’s just that bad. Maleficent’s amazing. I just hope they don’t ruin her.

Oh sigh. Fantastic.

http://www.trendnista.com/images/2009/june/tilda-swinton-craig-mcdean0.jpg
To be honest I personally find Tilda a much more chilling actress who would make me piss my pants in terror as maleficent. This was one of my favorite movies growing up and while I’m sure Jolie will do a good job, I think Tilda would have been absolutely haunting. 

http://www.trendnista.com/images/2009/june/tilda-swinton-craig-mcdean0.jpg
To be honest I think Tilda Swinton would have been a better option. She’s magnificent at playing chilling roles and I feel I’d of pissed my pants in horror seeing her play maleficent. this was one of my favorite movies growing up, and while I’m sure Jolie will do a good job, I think Tilda would have been absolutely haunting. 

 I’ve heard it as “Evil acts, Good Reacts”. I think it’s one of the rules of the ‘Good is stupid’ trope

She has no real reason for doing anything she does except for the fact that she’s a dark fairy.

http://filmlion.net/watch-on-the-road-online/

like @Terry:Disqus answered I am taken by surprise that any body can make $4593 in 4 weeks on the computer. have you seen this web link 

*Just Click At My name for The Link*

This is why when I was writing Cry of Justice (and its currently still-unpublished sequels {g}), I made sure that the chief protagonist, Portunista Athalia, has her own goals (mostly involving gathering enough strength to keep surviving in the world’s current situation) which happen to conflict with the goals of the antagonists (mostly involving the same thing).

Thus generating conflict! :D

She’s in their way, but only because she’s busy doing her own things; they’re in her way, too.

(Admittedly, she doesn’t start out very good, even though she’s the main protagonist; but the ethically good people in the story routinely have their own goals, too, which narratively happen to conflict with the goals of the antagonists and/or the generally evil people. The groups aren’t altogether mutually exclusive. Which narratively leads to tragedy on occasion.)

Not that I’m unique as an author–far from it–but the “evil acts, good thinks/reacts” trope is lazy or at best rather shallow storytelling. (Which may have been your uncle’s point, too.)

They’re gloming onto Mirror Mirror? I didn’t think that movie did well. It even got bad ratings, but frankly I LOVED IT! Mostly b/c of the dwarves who were a la Time Bandits, the fact that they somehow pulled off possibly the lamest joke ever, and made it REALLY FUNNY (Queen enchants prince to act like a dog) and the retribution of someone who really needed it! (I’m a big fan of LOTR and Game of Thrones if you get my drift…) Being a fan of those things alone makes Mirror Mirror worth watching XD

…in which the couple make sweet supervillain love to a mashup of Mousse T.’s “Horny” and Tom Jones’ “You Can Leave Your Hat On”…