Five years ago, The Witch had its premiere - an acting version of The Sleeping Beauty , presented from the perspective of a fairy-tale antagonist. It was quite an interesting picture compared to other live-action remakes, but full of flaws. Despite this, the production turned out to be a success and was continued, which I had the opportunity to see.
The difficult life of the queen of the forest
Five years have passed since the events of the first part of The Witch . Princess Aurora awoke from her cursed sleep and took over the fairy-tale Knieją. The starting point for the new story is certainly not very original, as we are dealing with a racial conflict. By marrying the young Prince Philip, Aurora wants to bring peace between humans and magical beings. While the plan is undoubtedly noble, the lovers did not foresee the destructive power of human cunning. As we saw in the trailers, during the meeting to connect the two worlds of the witch, Diabolina is provoked and embroiled in a new curse, bringing the conflict to life again.
All this happens in the first few minutes of the film. So one might suppose that according to Hitchcock’s principle, it will only get better from the next. Well, unfortunately not quite …
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Magical secondaryness
As promised, Witch 2 is both a sequel and a standalone film. Indeed, viewers who have not seen the first part should find themselves in the action without any problems. In this case, however, it is not an advantage, as Joachim Rønning’s work is basically a repeat. Well, maybe not literally, because we don’t get another version of the Sleeping Beauty story. Unfortunately, we are still dealing with a very similar conflict, the situations in which the characters find themselves, and even the message is not very different from the original. It is a pity that a more courageous vision has not been attempted. After all, working with a recognizable brand that will earn its own money anyway, the experiments would not be too risky. Nevertheless, I appreciate that after Aladdin and the Lion King We finally got a Disney acting movie, which at least is not a direct copy of the classics.
I also have reservations about the presented characters. It is in vain to look for interesting characters here, and it is correct at best. Only the title character, played by Angelina Jolie, stood out, and she had a more characteristic image than a proper writing. Surprisingly, I must admit that Polish dubbing is doing quite well. The voices were properly synchronized and selected accordingly. Except for Philip, who reminded me more of a boy from the estate than a prince from a fairy tale. However, a solid job has been done, so viewers who go to the screening with their children do not have to worry about bleeding ears.
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Fairytale beauty
I was complaining about this Witch 2 , but in the meantime I should mention two really strong points of the film. First of all, as we have established, the main plot does not introduce much news, but the background of the presented world is expanded. We spend more time than before with the creatures inhabiting the forest and learn a bit about their magical abilities. The origin of Diabolina is also explained, and it is this motif that I like the most as tribal motifs are introduced.
The second significant advantage is the audiovisual setting. Again, it is in vain to look for a fresh artistic vision here, but what we see and hear keeps a high level. This is definitely a leap from the horrible CGI in the first part of The Witch . This time the screen is bursting with the enormity of details and the viewer can easily become absorbed in the vision of a fairy-tale land. The final battle may be a bit disappointing, but it’s okay anyway. She also enjoys the variety of magical creatures, each of which seems to have their own unique characteristics. The only problem I have is with little fairies. The “human” scaled down images do not work well with computer effects, so that with each frame showing their faces there is a classic case of “valley of weird” – they are unnatural and even disturbing.
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No risk, no fun
In the end, I find the screening of Witch 2 really tiring. In fact, it is a correctly cut film, but the omnipresent repetitiveness and lack of expressive characters take away the pleasure of watching. In the absence of better proposals, the production can be seen with a younger viewer, because despite everything it contains a universal message about living in peace, beyond divisions, and children probably will not pay so much attention to the lack of originality. I hope that the third part of the series (because I assume it will be made) will fix the mistakes in some way, because the series still has the potential for an interesting story to be told.
We invite you to watch the movie Czarownica 2 to the Cinema City cinema network all over the country.
