Vin's countless posts predicting that the critics would tear Angelina's performance apart for being hammy and hokey
NY Daily News: Angelina Jolie is wickedly enchanting in the magical, magnificent Maleficent.
Philadelphia Inquirer: Jolie is magnificent as Maleficent.
The Telegraph: Jolie saves the day
LA Times: Angelina Jolie is wickedly good as the legendary Maleficent. In her hands, the queen is endlessly fascinating. This is Jolie's film because of the Maleficent she makes. Everyone else, even Aurora, fades in her presence. When she is on the screen, she is all you really see. In addition to an uncanny resemblance to the animated queen — those legendary cheekbones enhanced to an even sharper edge, those horns — the actress creates a queen who may not be easy to love, but she is hard to hate.
NY Times: Angelina Jolie makes a fabulous monster. As the title character in “Maleficent” — a divertingly different rethink of an awfully old story — she breezes through the movie, part superstar, part superfreak.
Washington Post: With her glinting eyes, chilly hauteur and blade*-like cheekbones, the increasingly iconic Jolie has finally transformed herself into living ice sculpture. Watching Jolie pose and smolder and glower is the chief attraction of “Maleficent." For all its limitations, “Maleficent” manages to be improbably entertaining to watch, due solely to its title character. As befits a star of her regal standing and superb self-awareness, Angelina Jolie has managed to bend even the Brothers Grimm to her indomitable will.
The Guardian: Elle Fanning plays the sweet-natured princess, who is entirely upstaged by Jolie. Her performance has a vinegary touch of pantos. I'd forgotten what a fierce screen presence Jolie is: she is becoming the Sophia Loren of our age. Now I want to see her in a grownup film.
