Weed Lifestyle

Great Movies While High: Maleficent, Source: http://l.yimg.com/os/publish-images/movies/2014-05-13/8601f540-dac3-11e3-9f86-9725a48e981b_maleficent_featurette_gs.jpgMaleficent is easily one of my favorite films from 2014. Directed by Robert Stromberg and adapted from Linda Woolverton’s screenplay, the film features Angelina Jolie as the infamous Disney villainess Maleficent.

This live action film is a new take on Walt Disney’s animated film Sleeping Beauty, portraying the villains perspective and what really happened. This clever adaption will have weedists fascinated with the developments in the storyline, which depart from the old narrative of the evil witch who curses the helpless princess, who is then saved by some flawless prince (booooring). The film is the fourth highest grossing movie of 2014, generating over $757 million worldwide.

Rather than an evil witch, this film presents Maleficent as a magical fairy who grows up in the cheery and magical Moors, a forest region outside of the realm of the dreary and violent human world. The tale depicts how Maleficent first saves, then falls in love with the human boy Stefan, who later betrays her in his incessant desire to become king.

The two grow apart as they age, and Maleficent becomes the protector of the Moors while Stephan seeks to gain worldly power in the human realm. Stephan eventually becomes king after he betrays his one time love, by stealing what is most precious to her (I’ll let you watch the film to figure out what that is). Maleficent becomes jaded and grief stricken, forming the Moors to her new dark persona.

King Stephan eventually has a daughter, Aurora, and news of her christening spreads through the land. When Maleficent discovers her old love has fathered a daughter, she becomes bent on revenge and appears at the christening to place a curse on the infant princess — on her sixteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel, which will cause her to fall into a deep “death” sleep from which she will never awaken.

Maleficent winds up keeping careful watch over Aurora and eventually grows quite fond of her, becoming her watchful “fairy godmother.” She grows to regret the curse she made on the princess and seeks to find a way to reverse it.

The special effects in this film are sure to dazzle, featuring various fantastical and frightening forest creatures and magical elements. The out-of-the-box reinventing of the storyline is sure to fascinate and entertain weedists looking for something a little more creative. I highly recommend this film for the avid movie watching toker, especially for those of us who appreciate women in fairy-tales with more active roles, doing something other than just sitting there looking pretty and waiting to be saved.

Check out other posts from Weedist’s Great Movies While High series!