Aladdin is directed by Guy
Ritchie and is the latest Disney live-action remake this time retelling the
original 1992animated classic of the same name and it tells a story of a streetwise thief named Aladdin who comes across Princess Jasmine meets a genie and
fights the evil Jafar seriously though before I get into the review this movie
has been met with so much online criticism because Will Smith is blue and
people just thought that was so goddamn hilarious and I guess it doesn't really
look that good having seen the actual movie I have some things to say about it
but it's not like Sonic the Hedgehog were like as soon as I saw the trailer I
wanted to actually burn all of my Sonic games in retaliation for the horrific the thing that I was witnessing it wasn't like that I still like the original
Aladdin it's funny though having actually seen the movie Will Smith is the
least of my concerns if anything he actually kept the movie more charismatic
then it was whenever he wasn't on screen I can't really focus on the music and
say the music is this great highlight because it's just the songs from the
original yes there's some new material and yes it's all good but I'm just
having a hard time getting excited about these Disney live-action remakes
because it's essentially taking something we all love already and saying hey
let's look at it through this light sometimes that works I really did like Jon
Favreau's the jungle book and the Cinderella film wasn't too bad either because
those films I can see how they could be real life a boy in the jungle there are
animals yes they talk and stuff but at its core, I can picture that in real life
we've had so many adaptations of that story anyway same with Cinderella it's
something I can picture in real life Aladdin that's a little hard we have
this
over-the-top genie the princess with her friendly Siberian tiger you know like
it's kind of hard to picture some of these things in real life and so that's a
struggle this film has because the movie is trying too hard to evoke the feel of
the animation, for one thing, the animated film is 90 minutes it's tight it's
contained it's compact it works this film is 2 hours and 8 minutes there's a lot of new stuff and you can feel it you can feel the story start to get
stretched and you can feel these characters getting stretched to the point
where they don't have anywhere else to go one of my biggest concern with the
film though lies in the performances namely the Aladdin character at times he
feels like he's trying too hard to be like the animated version that nervous
cute anxious quality that Aladdin had in the first film where he was trying to
be something he wasn't that works in animated form but when you translate that the exaggerated element of performing to live-action it comes off very cheesy and I
felt that most of the acting in this film was verbal and Will Smith is fine as
the genie, once you get over the fact that you're looking at Will Smith, has this
giant Genie he's actually the most entertaining part of the film in fact when
he wasn't onscreen I found myself relentlessly bored as far as the other
characters go I would say Naomi Scott as Jasmine gave the best performance she
felt like she was really trying with this role and I'm sure the actor who
portrayed Aladdin was also trying I have nothing against these actors you guys
know me I actually I really am uncomfortable speaking negatively about actors
because I know how hard their job is and it always makes me feel icky every the time I do it but I really do think that most of the performances in this movie
were very weak the worst though is Jafar and I've seen this actor in another a film called what happened to Monday with Noomi Rapace on Netflix and he was
really good in that movie so this leads me to believe that there was something
about the way this film was directed by Guy Ritchie that just kept everything
very stilted and wooden it at times does feel like a low-rent stage play a version of Aladdin even down to the way it looks the costumes look so clean and
perfect
they don't look dusty or dirty there's no sand or dirt on them there's there are a few scenes where they're literally rolling around in the sand that's different
but when they're walking around the city they just look like they were freshly
laundered it kind of reminded me of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the
Crystal Skull one of my biggest issues with that movie was just how clean and
glossy everything looked whereas the original three they just felt like they
were shot in a backyard somewhere looked so so gritty this movie everything
looks clean so relentlessly perfect looking that it really did feel like I was
watching something shot constantly on a soundstage I never ever had that
disconnect with reality I always felt like I was watching something that was
filmed never got into the movie there were some sequences that were
entertaining most of them being really over-the-top Genie songs it also feels
like Guy Ritchie may have been uncertain about how to approach a musical
because some of the sequences where characters are singing are just very bland
the camera just follows them around as they walk and there isn't much movement
there isn't much Flair to it every time Jafar was on screen I honestly felt
like laughing his look he looked like he was in a Power Rangers episode I mean
he's got this big Cobra staff and there are just certain things that work in an
animation and they just don't work in a live-action whenever you do a remake of
something that was in a different form before you have to look at that and say
what works as a drawing and what doesn't because just recreating what we liked
in animation form clearly just doesn't always work but in regards to Will Smith
he had a major uphill battle with this character I'm sure he was probably
horrified at the potential of you know inhabiting this character there are a
few Disney characters as renowned as the genie and there are even less as
synonymous with their actors as Robin Williams is with the genie those two
things are almost inseparable
I mean Simba is probably a more famous character
then the genie but when you think of Simba do you think of Matthew Broderick
probably not but when you think of the genie you think of Robin Williams it's
impossible not to does he trample all over that character no he's fine it's
just that you kind of have to get over the fact that it's this giant CGI Will
Smith dancing around it just it doesn't always work when he plays himself
though I thought it was really charming and he did a good job in the movie he's
easily honestly the best part of the movie which is funny because he was the
most widely scrutinized aspect of it before there are times where you can feel
like the actors are trying to break free from whatever control they're under
and they're trying to just be a little more lively but for the most part some
of the dialogue and some of the performances are cringe-worthy the CGI is very
noticeable and the sets looked like sets is it as bad as the internet thought
it was going to be I guess not I mean the thing that everyone was worried about
was probably my favorite part of the movie it's everything else around it the
stuff that people just assumed would be good that I thought was bad I'm gonna
give Aladdin a-minus guys I just want to say thank you for continuing to
read my movies reviews awesome I
appreciate it every once in awhile I just want to remind you guys that I
really appreciate that you guys are here so thank you so much for doing that
look forward to more reviews very soon and if you like this you can comment
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