Mommy and Me Movie Review: Maleficent

As the school year comes to an end this week for the schools in our area, summer movie time is just beginning!

My daughter, Sophia, and I decided to get a head start on our summer movie viewing yesterday afternoon, after a day of shopping and lunch together, when I surprised her with a trip to see Disney's Maleficent.

We both LOVED it!

Angelina Jolie is breathtaking and perfect as Maleficent, and the special effects, sets, and makeup are beyond amazing. The rest of the cast does a phenomenal job, too. And how cute is Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's daughter Vivienne as toddler-Aurora?! Adorable!

There are a few "holes" in the script, I thought, where things didn't just flow, seemed like they were added as an afterthought, or felt a bit rushed, but I loved that it was a twist on the story of Sleeping Beauty that we all know so well, similar to what Wicked did for the Wizard of Oz story.

 Sophia, who is 8 years old, wrote her own review too, which included tidbits like "Maleficent is a fairy that is human size. She has wings that drag on the ground. Maleficent can not be next to iron. She has a crow that she can turn into animals that are bird like..." and then she goes on to give away the whole movie, so I won't print it here, so as not to spoil it for everyone.

But she gives it an A.

 

 

There are some pretty dark and violent moments (for a PG rated film), so I would recommend Maleficent to kids ages 7 or 8 and up, but there were kids in the theater much younger than that had no problem with the somewhat scary elements, so just use your own judgement, as you obviously know your kids better than I. Overall I give it a B+.

So if you combine our ratings, we give it an A-. Not bad Disney. Not bad at all.

And, just for the record, we'd totally see it again.

Book Review: Shatter Me

Shatter Me by Tahereh Mafi

Since birth, Juliette's touch has been lethal. After accidentally killing an innocent child while trying to save him, she in institutionalized by her parents. But when the new government, called the Reestablishment, find out about her, and want to use her as a weapon, it takes all she has to break free and fight back.

This is another one of those young adult dystopian series that have become so popular lately. It took a while to get used to Tahereh Mafi's unusual writing style, and although it's not in the same caliber as The Hunger Games or Divergent, it was still quite an enjoyable read with characters you connect to, and root for throughout the book.

I give Shatter Me a B-.

If you enjoyed this one, I suggest reading the next two books in this series, Unravel Me (#2) and Ignite Me (#3).