Discussing
Maleficent's Nuanced Understanding of Evil

The new Maleficent is less a fairy-tale version of good and evil and something more like the human sinfulness we all know.

I admit I'm skeptical of this movie, but your review has almost persuaded me to check it out (and with 2 daughters who are Disney fans, I want to hear "the rest of the story.") I do think it's interesting to see this more nuanced view cropping up in a variety of stories recently. But I agree that it's often difficult to strike the right balance between evil that is perpetuated and the personal responsibility to respond in a proper way to the evil done. At their best, stories like these should make us more aware of our own power to destroy others while simultaneously calling us to be aware of our own calling to overcome evil with good.

Fair warning, Branson: though it's rated PG, the "trauma scene," for lack of a better phrase, is pretty intense. Not explicit, but jarring. My daughters (12 and 8, and Disney fans as well) really enjoyed it, though the younger one noted that compared to other Disney films it was "more dramatic."

I really liked this movie. It took the genre seriously, taking the childlike Disney original and "growing it up" into a story that, in my opinion, is worthy of the fantasy stories for adults that I like. It is unique in that there is no "nudge, nudge, wink" humor that other reinterpreted fairy tales have had; nothing against that, but it's nice as I said to see the genre taken seriously and done well.

You don't think it's Stefan who is pure evil? I think Christianity has put a pretty tainted lens on your perspective of evil.

In Reply to Nico Luzio (comment #30348)
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I'd say Stefan suffers from/inflicts the same human sinfulness we all do.