It’s been five years since Angelina Jolie took on the iconic role of Maleficent, reimagining the stylish but one-note villain from Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty for a whole new generation. Its sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, is a definite step up from the first movie by expanding the story beyond its fairy tale inspiration and bringing in compelling new characters (and actors to play them), though it is held back by pacing issues.
The first movie expanded on the fairy tale by introducing a backstory that saw the horned fairy betrayed by the ambitious and cruel man that she once loved so he could become king, and eventually having her become surrogate mother to Aurora (Elle Fanning). Though you don’t need to have seen the first film to enjoy Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, this sequel gets the audience up to speed from its opening “Once Upon a Time” intro. It follows on directly from the end of that fairytale with Aurora living as the Queen of the Moors (the fairy folk), but both their lives are upended when Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) asks Aurora to marry him, setting off a devastating chain of events.
Source: IGN.com Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Review