Released: May 2019
Director: Guy Ritchie
Run Time: 128 Minutes
Rated PG
Distributor: Disney
Genre: Fantasy/Adventure
Cast:
Will Smith: Genie/Mariner
Mena Massoud: Aladdin
Naomi Scott: Jasmine
Marwan Kenzari: Jafar
Navid Negahban: Sultan
Nasim Pedrad: Dalia
When it comes to movies that defined my childhood, I would normally think Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Krull, Willow, and various films in those genres. But some of my favorite movies growing up were Disney movies: Snow White, Pinocchio, The Fox and the Hound, Sleeping Beauty, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and……Aladdin. I have very fond memories of these films. The animation, the music, the story, the voice acting, you know, the things that really made these films stand out. Can somebody please explain to me what the hell happened to Disney? Over the past 20 years, we’ve seen Disney switch from traditional hand-drawn animation to fully CGI-animated films. Truth be told, some of those CGI films are pretty good: Wall-e, Up, Moana, and Tangled. These are good movies. So why are we seeing more and more live-action remakes of some of my generation’s beloved classics? It all started with Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, which wasn’t that good. The Jungle Book was extremely annoying, while The Lion King remake was not very good. The only remake that I actually thought that was really good was Beauty and the Beast. But every other live-action remake they’ve done was generally pretty awful. That brings me to the 2019 live-action remake of Aladdin. Oh, man.
The story follows Aladdin, a young street urchin trying to survive on the streets of Agrabah by stealing bread and outrunning guards. During one of his excursions, he runs into Princess Jasmine, who is in disguise. Together they end up outrunning the guards and reach Aladdin’s home. After learning that he’s a thief because he stole her bracelet, she returns to the palace. After returning the bracelet to Jasmine, he’s captured by the Sultan’s vizier, Jafar. Jafar makes Aladdin an offer he can’t refuse by taking to a mysterious cave in the desert that holds a magical lamp. After getting trapped in the cave, Aladdin rubs the lamp and releases the all-powerful Genie. After “wishing” to get out of the cave, they end up in the desert when Genie discovers that he was tricked. Using one of his wishes, Aladdin becomes a prince so he can marry Jasmine. Like the animated film, Aladdin’s story is still really strong. The problem here, is that it’s not as competently executed. Certain story elements from the animated picture aren’t here. In fact, we don’t get to see Jasmine escape from the palace for the first time. Beat for beat, it’s pretty much the same movie, except that it’s not as good and it’s much longer, and you can feel the run time.
When it was announced that Will Smith would be taking on the role of the Genie, the response was….mixed. A lot of people were not very happy, because this role was basically Robin Williams’ creation. In fact, the animated film was animated around Robin’s performance, which made the film all that much more special. When we got our first look at Will Smith as the big blue magical being, people were pissed. He did not look that great, and the CGI looked pretty poor. I can honestly tell you that the Genie looks a lot better when he’s in motion, but most people can’t really get past the way the character looks. Thankfully, Will Smith does a fantastic job as the Genie. He doesn’t use anything that Robin Williams did, but rather adds his own unique flavor to the role, and…..it actually works. I was hoping for Will Smith to get the role in the even that they tried to do a remake after Robin Williams passed away, because Smith was the only other person that could make it work, and he does. I love his performance. Another shout-out has to go to Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. Not only is Scott gorgeous in the film, she brings a real commanding and yet vulnerable presence to the character that almost rivals the original performer. Even Nasim Pedrad does a pretty decent job as Dalia, the handmaiden. Everyone else, though, was terribly miscast. I don’t blame Mena Massoud for his performance. He did the best he could, but he didn’t have the right personality or qualities that made the character so endearing. The real sin of the casting though was Marwen Kenzari as Jafar. I’m sorry, this guy’s not threatening at all. Jonathan Freeman, who voiced the character in the animated feature, was a lot more threatening and sinister. You believed he was a major threat. Marwen? Not so much. He’s too much of a pretty boy to play a character that’s supposed to exude that kind of evil.
Let’s talk about how the film looks. For a film that had a budget of nearly 200 million bucks, it looks like garbage. The sets and costumes, for the most part look extremely cheap. The only person that looked good in her outfit was Naomi Scott. She pulled off her character’s look incredibly well. Aladdin? I don’t know what they were thinking when they went with that look. The same issue extends to the sets. These things look like they were made in a backyard. The CGI? Oh, my god. This is easily some of the worst CGI I’ve ever seen in a major theatrical production this year. It’s incredibly obvious when they’re using a green screen and when certain elements are CGI against live-action elements. The Genie’s design is the only one that manages to be….okay. But everything else feels like they didn’t have time to finish.
For the most part, the music manages to survive the transition. Will Smith is an incredibly talented actor and musician, so for him to star in a musical is brilliant casting. He’s version of A Friend Like Me and Prince Ali are pretty top-notch. There are a couple of new songs in the film that are sung by Naomi Scott and she does a fantastic job. She did a lot better than Emma Watson did in Beauty and the Beast, and it doesn’t sound like she was auto-tuned. Mena Massoud, on the other hand….not that good. His rendition of One Jump Ahead feels horrendously generic and doesn’t have the kind of pizzazz and fun factor that Brad Kane delivered in the original film. The actual musical score, without the singing, just doesn’t have the same kind of epic feel.
I really hate to come down this hard on movies like this, but when you see that Disney doesn’t actually put that much effort into making their remakes stand out from the rest of the pack, it’s hard to take it seriously. It breaks my heart, because the original Aladdin is one of my all-time favorite Disney movies. The sting from how bad this movie was lessened, because it never looked good from the previews. The whole thing feels rushed and artificial. It feels less organic and expressive than the original film, and that’s not a good thing. What’s even worse, is that this film more than made back its budget, so we can expect a sequel somewhere down the road, and I wish they wouldn’t. Outside of some really strong performances by Will Smith and Naomi Scott, I can’t recommend this film over the animated one. It’s too long, has a lot of questionable visual effects, and the humor just doesn’t land, unless it’s Will Smith landing the jokes. He’s hilarious, nobody else is. This is one film I won’t be adding to my collection.
My Final Recommendation: 4/10. This is worse than The Lion King remake, by far, and one of the worst theatrical releases I’ve seen this year. Skip it.