Good Night, Beastie

I've been looking forward to seeing "Maleficent" ever since I saw the first picture of Angelina Jolie in the make-up. Then I heard Lana Del Rey's rendition of "Once Upon A Dream" and loved it.  It's finally Maleficent weekend!  I watched the film in LFX at the Krikorian.

• Really, you would think that if you name someone "Maleficent", it's kind of a given that something sinister is going to happen.
• Those wings are awesome.  The whole look is awesome.  I love the way that they accentuated and digitized her cheekbones so that they look like the animated Maleficent that we all know so well.  Oh, and the eyes!  WHOA.  So beautiful, yet so mysterious.
• Angelina Jolie was perfectly cast in this role.   She had the look, the mannerisms, and the voice that I expected.
• The slight differences in story from the animated film were quite interesting.  
• Well, no wonder she was so pissed off about that baby! I will never look at King Stefan the same way when I watch the animated version.  
• But then the third fairy didn't get to give the baby her gift!  The true love's kiss was supposed to be by the third fairy, but I guess it does work better for Maleficent to use those words, since Steafan had used them with her.  
• Those fairies sure didn't do a good job of hiding her.  They forgot to name her Briar Rose, and they don't seem to ask her where she's been during all of those days that she's spending time in the Moor.
• For a moment, I wondered if Diaval was supposed to kiss Aurora.
• "Even though they almost let me eat spiders..."
• "You're my fairy godmother."
• Tears were streaming down my face when Maleficent was in Aurora's room during all of the kissing.
• I like having a dragon AND Maleficent fighting, but then we missed seeing her say, "And all the powers of HELL!!!!" as she transforms, which was what scared me a lot when I was a kid.
• Aw, Jolie's and Brad Pitt's little girl played the 5-year-old Aurora.
• Beautiful production design.  Everything was lush and gorgeous and dark wherever it needed to be.
• Nice shout-out to Marc Davis at the end of the credits.

I may need to see this again in the theater, just so I can watch it without the commentary/questions from the little girl sitting nearby in my row.