Rotten Tomatoes
Cancel Movies Tv shows Shop News Showtimes

Maleficent

PG Released May 30, 2014 1h 38m Fantasy Adventure Action TRAILER for Maleficent: 'Dream' Trailer List
54% Tomatometer 277 Reviews 70% Audience Score 100,000+ Ratings
As a beautiful young woman of pure heart, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has an idyllic life in a forest kingdom. When an invading army threatens the land, Maleficent rises up to become its fiercest protector. However, a terrible betrayal hardens her heart and twists her into a creature bent on revenge. She engages in an epic battle with the invading king's successor, then curses his newborn daughter, Aurora -- realizing only later that the child holds the key to peace in the kingdom. Read More Read Less
Watch on Fandango at Home Buy Now

Where to Watch

Maleficent

Fandango at Home Prime Video Apple TV

Rent Maleficent on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV, or buy it on Fandango at Home, Prime Video, Apple TV.

Maleficent

What to Know

Critics Consensus

Angelina Jolie's magnetic performance outshines Maleficent's dazzling special effects; unfortunately, the movie around them fails to justify all that impressive effort.

Read Critics Reviews

Critics Reviews

View All (277) Critics Reviews
Suzette Smith Bitch Media As the sum of all its parts, Maleficent is a downright fun film. Jan 21, 2021 Full Review Chris Stuckmann ChrisStuckmann.com Angelina Jolie is good in the film, and I do think kids will dig this movie. Rated: B- Dec 14, 2018 Full Review Philippa Hawker The Age (Australia) It's a splendid-looking film. The effects are striking throughout, whether they are dramatic battle confrontations between humans and the forces of the natural world, or small moments of delicate detail. Rated: 3/5 Dec 14, 2018 Full Review Cory Woodroof For the Win (USA Today) Even if Maleficent has its faults, you can experience this one and get some separation from the film from which it takes its inspiration. May 27, 2023 Full Review Sean Axmaker Stream on Demand It is a righteous revenge film, but with a feminist twist and a redemptive journey. Oct 9, 2022 Full Review Brian Eggert Deep Focus Review By the end, one cannot help but wish that Disney had left Maleficent a fascinating villain instead of a dull protagonist. Rated: 1/4 Aug 15, 2022 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

View All (1000+) audience reviews
Albert W Good family movie. Enjoyed it. The 4K disc version looked great. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 07/28/24 Full Review Austin S Good twist on a classic Disney film. It's like a remake of the original Sleeping Beauty that also doubles as a spin-off about the villain Maleficent. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 07/21/24 Full Review Dale R The origin story of the character from Disney’s Sleeping Beauty animated film done in live action starring Angelina Jolie. This film is not a live action remake of the original film, instead making the villain of the original the protagonist of her own film. Maleficent is one of my favorite villain characters of all time and I wish they would have told the original story (expanded for time) from the villain's point of view. Instead they ruin the characters of the good fairies and Maleficent herself. Angelina Jolie is perfectly cast as the title character and does a great job in the role. The scene taken from the original movie when she curses Aurora as a child was really well done. The rest of the movie is not what I wanted, nor what I needed. #notmymaleficent Rated 1 out of 5 stars 07/07/24 Full Review Devra B I LOVE this movie. Highly recommend. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 06/14/24 Full Review Rachel T The movie didn’t make any sense as to why you would want a villain to be a hero instead of the fact that the villain dies and the good wins. It’s apparently a very disappointing story that doesn’t add up to the original film. This is why the animations are so much better than the live actions plus live actions suck. I mean you really let a little kid say one bad word in the live action Pinocchio and it was unbelievable to hear it come from a kid who doesn’t know anything because he’s young and not older enough to understand what he just said. I highly don’t recommend the live action films. Animated is so much better and no bad words and so they’re more safer than the live actions. Rated 1 out of 5 stars 06/07/24 Full Review Audience Member A decade later Walt Disney Pictures attempts to tell the real story of arguably their best villain in their canon even if it's very forgettable Angelina Jolie plays the mistress of all evil, Maleficent from the 1950s Sleeping Beauty co-starring with Elle Fannig, Sharlto Coplay, Brenton Thwaites, Juno Temple, and Imelda Staunton and director Robert Stromberg It opens with her as a little child fairy that could fly in the enchanted forest outside a kingdom She lives with other forest creatures and they run into a young boy named Stefan from the outside They grow closer over time falling in love but Stefan arises to power wanting the throne for himself so he takes away Maleficent's wings She then becomes angry and hateful of humans claiming dominion over the forest making it dark Then Stefan has his daughter Aurora taken care of by the Three Good Fairies after Maleficent curses her who's more interested in exploring the forest striking a friendship with her Angelina Jolie does give a surefire performance as this titular villain even if it strays away from what we loved about her so much The movie changes a lot from the original story which will irk some people Elle Fanning is good too being a lot more dimensional having love for her surrogate fairy mother although Coplay does come across as very cartoonish and the Prince himself is very holllow and forgettable It's a shame the best action sequence is at the beginning and the CGI on the fairies is rather uncomfortable to look at It doesn't help that in this version they come off as terrible people with Maleficent being more of a mother The film becomes an issue because they attempt to humanize a character we are supposed to despise The other thing the filmmakers change is the idea of true love; it's not necessarily romantic but more of the idea of the love for another which I guess is a welcome change The art direction and cinematography is beautiful no doubt with a larger mythology This script is pretty flimsy at best with a tone that flips back and forth Not one of the worst films by Disney but could've been so much better; still became a box office hit leading to a sequel despite the critics being split even winning an Oscar for best costume A villain's origin story can only work if you give legit reasons why they became evil in the first place making us enjoy hating them like Freddy Kruger or The Joker For a live action movie based on a classic villain it should've been more perfect Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 05/30/24 Full Review Read all reviews
Maleficent

My Rating

Read More Read Less POST RATING WRITE A REVIEW EDIT REVIEW
Maleficent: Mistress of Evil 39% 95% Maleficent: Mistress of Evil TRAILER for Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Dragonball: Evolution 14% 19% Dragonball: Evolution Conan the Destroyer 26% 38% Conan the Destroyer Clash of the Titans 64% 70% Clash of the Titans The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box 20% 58% The Adventurer: The Curse of the Midas Box Discover more movies and TV shows. View More

Movie Info

Synopsis As a beautiful young woman of pure heart, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has an idyllic life in a forest kingdom. When an invading army threatens the land, Maleficent rises up to become its fiercest protector. However, a terrible betrayal hardens her heart and twists her into a creature bent on revenge. She engages in an epic battle with the invading king's successor, then curses his newborn daughter, Aurora -- realizing only later that the child holds the key to peace in the kingdom.
Director
Robert Stromberg
Producer
Joe Roth
Screenwriter
Linda Woolverton
Distributor
Walt Disney
Production Co
Roth Films, Walt Disney Pictures
Rating
PG (Sequences of Fantasy Action|Frightening Images|Sequences of Fantasy Violence)
Genre
Fantasy, Adventure, Action
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
May 30, 2014, Wide
Release Date (Streaming)
Nov 4, 2014
Box Office (Gross USA)
$241.4M
Runtime
1h 38m
Sound Mix
Dolby Digital, Dolby Atmos, Datasat
Aspect Ratio
Scope (2.35:1)
Most Popular at Home Now