Some critics liked Maleficent, as this review from J. Larsen at larsenonfilm.com shows.
Spoiler alert, if you haven't seen the movie yet.
Many critics panned the movie but this seems to be one of those movies that critics generally don't like but regular people do. Having just seen the movie I thought it was better than expected, and had many good scenes. Of course Angelina Jolie is very good, and the story of why she turned evil, and eventually softened, at least makes sense from a story-telling point of view. Much like Wicked, where the theme was "it's not easy being green", Maleficent's motivation for turning evil was the loss of her wings. Disney fans might not like the softer Maleficent but it works in the movie because she starts out that way.
An interesting plot twist was when Maleficent tried to remove the curse she put on Aurora 16 years earlier. She could not remove the curse because it came with the clause "no power on Earth can remove it" -surprisingly this included Maleficent. This shows why you should design curses that have a back door. This non-revokable clause led to the ferocious ending where Maleficent had to go to the castle with an unconscious Prince Charming in tow. Because they couldn't remember the king's instruction, the pixies brought Aurora back to the castle on her 16th birthday, one day too soon. This led to Aurora finding a spinning wheel, despite the king's earlier order to destroy them all, and pricking her finger. This seems to say that the curse was arranging events so it would work. If the pixies kept Aurora away from the castle for one more day, would the curse just expire? I would guess that a non-revokable curse like that will find a way to work. Maybe an elf would suddenly deliver a spinning wheel to the cottage. Another interesting twist - PC's kiss to wake up Aurora didn't work either. But something did work and that is left to the movie-goer to find out.
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