Maleficent: Mistress of Evil

I didn't especially like the movie Maleficent but I really enjoyed Angelina Jolie's performance and for that reason I decided to see the sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, yesterday.  I liked it so much more than I thought I would.  Even after reversing the curse on Aurora (Elle Fanning), Maleficent (Jolie) is still viewed as a villain so Aurora rules as Queen of the Moors in her place.  Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) proposes to Aurora and she accepts, hoping that their marriage will unite the fairies of the Moor and Phillip's kingdom of Ulstead.  Maleficent is not happy about this marriage but agrees to attend a dinner in their honor hosted by Phillip's parents King John (Robert Lindsay) and Queen Ingrith (Michelle Pfeiffer).  Tensions brew during the dinner and King John falls under a spell for which Maleficent is unjustly blamed, causing Aurora to turn against her.  As Maleficent flees, she is shot with iron and collapses in the sea.  She is rescued by Conall (Chiwetel Ejiofor), another fey with horns and wings like her, and taken to an underground cavern where the remaining fey left in the world are forced to live.  Conall urges her to remember her daughter and pleads for peace but Borra (Ed Skrein) and the other fey want war.  During an epic confrontation between the fairies and the humans, Aurora and Maleficent must remember the bond that brought them together in some really touching scenes (I may or may not have had a tear in my eye).  What I didn't like about the first movie is what the sequel absolutely gets right.  The visuals are stunning in this movie and I was completely drawn into the world inhabited by these fantastical creatures.  The CGI is a vast improvement on the original, in my opinion, and even those silly pixies (Imelda Staunton, Lesley Manville, and Juno Temple) didn't bother me this time.  Once again, Jolie gives a riveting performance and I particularly enjoyed the development of her character's conflicted feelings about her place in the world.  Pfeiffer is also sensational as a villain and I loved the scenes where Maleficent and Ingrith go toe to toe (I can't decide which character had the best costumes).  I liked the message about fighting against fear and intolerance and I found it to be quite moving, especially during a scene where one of the creatures is used to test the effectiveness of a deadly potion and another scene where a creature sacrifices herself to save the others.  I went into this movie expecting not to like it but I thoroughly enjoyed myself and would definitely recommend it!