Of all the Disney movies out there, Aladdin is honestly my all-time favorite Disney animated feature next to The Sword in the Stone and Hercules. When a live-action adaptation for this movie was announced, I was excited and worried at the same time. I was surprised by the live-action Cinderella film that released in 2015 and due to the success of that film, Disney announced a huge slate of live-action remakes. There’s a lot to this movie that we’ve already seen from the animated feature, but there are little bits and pieces sprinkled throughout that are different; though, I must say that I still prefer the original to this one.
To start off with the good about this film, each actor does a fantastic job in their roles. Mena Massoud as Aladdin is honestly a great choice and I cannot see anyone else in the role and the same can be said for Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine. These two act well off of each other and I really hope we see more of these two as these characters or at the very least in other films.
When Naomi Scott was announced as Princess Jasmine, I honestly thought they couldn’t have picked a better actor to portray this character. I liked her a lot as Kimberly Hart in 2017’s Power Rangers and was curious to see how her career would blossom after that movie. Becoming a Disney Princess for a live-action remake that brings us back to this wonderful world of Agrabah was a smart and great choice for her. She’s likable in her role and certainly puts everything she can in the scenes that she is in.
Genie is a character that can be described really in one word and that’s effervescent & Will Smith’s performance knocks that out of the park. I was pleasantly surprised with him as Genie and I have to say, in today’s world of comedic actors, Will Smith is the perfect choice to fill the proverbial shoes the late and great Robin Williams left behind. He really does make this role his own and I laughed quite a bit in his scenes as his scenes were filled with comedic lines that an actor like Will Smith could pull off. If you’ve seen the original 1992 animated feature this movie is based on, then you know at the end, Aladdin used his final wish to wish Genie free from his shackles, and I was moved with the emotions that Will Smith gave off as Aladdin. The lead actors all do a fantastic job in their roles and it shows.
However, one of the real weak points in this movie, and that’s Jafar. Whether it’s how he was written or the actor who portrayed him, I couldn’t really get passed him as Jafar. I couldn’t believe him in this role. Most of his lines were read off with not much conviction and that’s a shame as Jafar from the original animated film was such a menacing character. I really wish Jafar was great in this movie, but he was simply mediocre at best.
Some of the other problems I had with this movie was most of the dance choreography, more-so how it was filmed and the singing. The movie obviously takes songs from the original film and brings them back for this one and adds another song for Naomi Scott to sing, which is a nice little song for her character and adds a nice touch to the movie that sets itself slightly away from the original. Now the songs are sung really well, and each actor that does sing (Mena, Naomi, and Will) however, when it’s filmed you can really just tell their lip-syncing to the song and you could tell it’s just studio audio you’re hearing. I notice it a lot in most musicals, so I imagine it’s hard to make something like this a non-noticeable moment in a musical.
There are also a few moments where the actors are dancing that I feel like sweeping motions with the camera would have done a better job to convey a sort of excitement that we’re supposed to feel during the unveiling of Aladdin as Prince Ali of Ababwa to the citizens of Agrabah. With doing that, putting the songs at a faster tempo would help portray that excitement even more. Though it does seems like they did try that with some dance numbers, but it just looks like someone sped up the scene by hitting the fast-forward button while they were in post-production It’s a tiny complaint and could really just be a nitpick of mine, but it’s still there.
My only other complaint or problem with this movie is that I think Guy Ritchie wasn’t the best director to make this movie. This is the one Guy Ritchie movie that doesn’t feel like anything else he has done, and a lot of the times directors make those type of films. Maybe Guy Ritchie was held back by Disney to make it a certain way, Disney is known for doing that. Though, I still want to think that possibly a better director could’ve been picked, although with saying that; this is a fun family movie and I will continue to watch it when it’s out on physical media, and I may see it again while it’s still in theatres.
ShultzyOnFilm 