Maleficent (2014) Review!

     I am gonna be completely honest right now...I have never seen most of the old school Disney cartoons.  I have seen Bambi and Dumbo, but that's about as far as that goes with the classic ones.  I have seen a few of the 90's ones but that's where my Disney cartoons ended.  So I should think at this point I shouldn't have to say that I have not seen Sleeping Beauty.  But I do know the stories because, I don't know, I may have read them when I was real little.  So going into this movie I didn't really have many expectations at all.  I had read some synopsis and other things about it through the normal movie sites I peruse on a daily basis.  I only knew of one actor in the movie and that was Angelina Jolie.  She is also the only part of the poster for the film.  In all the write ups that I found for this flick they all had one single recurring thought, and that was that Angelina Jolie straight knocks this role outta the park.  That alone is what made me want to watch this.
     So the first thing that I have to say about the actual film after watching it is pretty much all the people that wrote about the movie were right, Miss Jolie does a spectacular job.  The first segment of the film she plays the title character with such sweet and lovable perfection that when shit starts to get real your heart goes out to her.  The scene I am talking about is incredibly powerful and a bit hard to watch.  When you watch it, you will know exactly which scene I am referencing here, but I don't like being a spoiler writer.  I may on occasion let some things slip but I try not to unless you have seen the film in which case it is no longer a spoiler at all.  After the moment of it getting real she changes to, what I can only describe as, a very pissed off woman.  And considering what happens to her I don't blame her.  Obviously there are more actors in this but I am only gonna say that they all do a fantastic job and that the whole thing impressed me because I wasn't expecting it to be any good.  Maybe that's why I liked it as much as I did.
      The special effects are really cool and they don't distract you from the story.  The only thing bad I have to say about them is there are times when effects are kinds cheesy, almost as if they just don't fit with the rest of it.  Alot of this movie is near perfect effects but the few that aren't really stick out well.  But let that deter you from watching it because it really is a great film.
     I can honestly recommend this to anyone.  It has a love story, loads of action, great fantasy atmosphere, great acting and it's by Disney so it's kid friendly as well.