The Lion King was directed by Jon Favreau this time around this is the adaptation I hesitate to say
live-action there was a massive debate about this online of 1994 classic
animated film and in case you somehow do not know the plot of this movie Simba
gets his right to the throne of Pride Rock challenged when his evil uncle Scar
causes tragedy to occur and banishes Simba from the pride lands this is another
live-action remake from Disney we already had Aladdin this year and we've had
Cinderella in The Jungle Book and Beauty and the Beast and Pete's Dragon and
Dumbo which I still haven't seen and probably won't because I've heard rough
things about it and I was never a massive fan of the original number film
anyway but when it comes to live-action remakes the Jungle Book which was also
directed by Favreau and I really enjoyed that at least had a young actor in it
who was surrounded by a digital environment in the case of this film though
it's basically another form of animation just not the traditional hand-drawn
that the original Lion King did so well and I'm not gonna get too hard into
that debate here because I think it's pointless and we really want to talk
about the film in regards to visuals and the technical achievement that this the film shows us mind-blowing no matter what you think of this movie you must
praise the artists that worked on it they have created a beautiful world that
absolutely looks photorealistic the trees the sky the mountaintops the blades
of grass insects, all of the animal's everything looks incredible and it's
impossible to deny the technical brilliance that's on display constantly the voice cast is also really good JamesEarl Jones once again as Mufasa is
obviously, music to my ears and estrogen as Pumbaa is essentially perfect casting
he laughs as Pumbaa and I heard Seth Rogen laugh as Pumbaa in a movie which was
vastly satisfying to me and that's about where I'm gonna stop at the praising
the rest of the movie has some great stuff too but it's all just stuff from the
94 film I mean Hans Zimmer score I got that on vinyl
I love it I've always
loved it but this movie didn't create it the opening scene with the circle of
life song is an iconic scene that is recreated here the story is emotionally
affecting like it was in 1994 the characters are entertaining like they were in
1994Timon and Pumbaa bickering that's funny just like it was in 1994 are you
getting where I'm going with this movie is a shot-for-shot remake of The
Lion King, there's no personality of its own it's completely predictable in
every way there are no surprises there's very little that's new and the things
that are new are mostly things that have just been removed or shortened like
the be prepared song, for instance, is heavily shortened there's a new song
that's added and hilariously the song can you feel the love tonight was
originally featured in a scene that took place at night but in this movie, the scene is in broad daylight so the song title no longer makes sense can you feel
the love this afternoon I guess but what disappointed me the most about this the film is not that some songs have been shortened or that some scenes have been
removed but that the personality of the original film is non-existent here this the film is soulless much of the humor and mysticism of the original film has been
completely removed and replaced with an overly serious attempt at an epic movie
and it does not have to be I love Jon Favreau he's one of my favorite filmmakers
working today I've loved just about every film he has made particularly Iron Man
and chef and I love the idea of him taking this and making it his own but he
hasn't this reminds me of when Gus Van Santmadepsycho in 1998 and it was
essentially a shot-for-shot remake of Alfred Hitchcock's film and he added
weird things like strange visions and you know some scenes here and there but
for the most part, I watched Gus Van Sant's psycho and I wonder why what is the point
of that film why is this necessary psycho was already a classic it was already
good everybody loved it what's the point of doing it again if you're not gonna
add your own spin on it and that's exactly how I feel about Disney's
live-action Lion King remake because it's essentially the same movie and I will
always love that original film and I will always want to watch that original the film I guarantee that any day I will always want to watch that original film
over this and
I know for a fact that there will be many people who enjoy this
movie and who just want to see exactly what this film offers the same movie
just with a different look and more
realistic characters and if that's all you want if that satisfies you you're
gonna have a good time you're going to enjoy this movie but if you want a
filmmaker to actually take this material and put a spin on it make it feel
fresh or unique you're not gonna get that at the same time doing that Favreau
would risk hurting a lot of people because oh my god you butchered The Lion
King this is nothing like the original bobble so that's again I circle back to
what's the point it's unnecessary it should never have been done Lion King is a
classic a movie like The Jungle Book you can do a remake of that there's
already been tons of jungle book movies The Little Mermaid I could see that too
to be honest, The Lion King though like that's stop tier Disney there's no point
to it and I feel like Disney just thought well we're doing the live-action
stuff now so we have to do the Lion King right I mean we have to do you really
have to Bob yes Jeff yes another issue that presents itself when you have these
characters look like photorealistic lions are that they are not showing the
level of emotion that the facial expressions show in the original animation and
you can tell there was an attempt to make it look as real as possible so during
the Stampede sequence and Simba sees what he sees and he screams no it just
looks like a lion just opening his mouth and there's commotion there is a fight
sequences as you may expect between characters and they just look like lions
fighting about halfway through the movie I realized they were going to change
basically, nothing and it would be a shot-for-shot remake and so I just found
myself watching each scene thinking how will they do this oh they did it just
like the other one except without the personality and it just felt kind of
shameless you know like I tend to give studios and people the benefit of the
doubt I do I might be a little naive in the case of this movie I would like to
think that they thought well we can make a new version of The Lion King and
people will like it and young kids who've never seen the original will like it
which is probably true I mean
I came close to hating the live-action Aladdin
but people apparently liked that movie so what the hell do I know Aladdin but
the cynic in me wants to say this is a cash grab because the movie has no soul
it just feels like control there's your new Lion King in regards to Tim on and
Pumbaa they have obviously retained a lot of their humor they didn't do too
much to those characters in regards to stripping that humor from them but
they've done it with just about every other character all of the subtleties and
the nuances that were in the performances and in the characters in the script
and the original film seemed to have been stripped away here especially with Rafi
ki Rafi ki was always my favorite character in the original film I've loved
Rafi ki forever and they removed so much of his humor no longer do we have this
great moment oh geez what was that for it doesn't matter each in deposit how to do
you cut out like one of the most important character-building moments in the
Lion King like I get that you want to do something new which is what I'm asking
so now I'm complaining about something that did that was new even though they
just cut something out but I'm putting myself in the headspace of the people
who made this movie if you're going to make a shot-for-shot remake why cut out
that like if you've already committed to doing every single thing including the way the shots move and when they cut that the original film did why would you cut
out like one of the most important character moments Disney gets quite a bit of
hate online because they own so many different properties now and their hands
are in a lot of different things and so a lot of people are expressing themselves
and sometimes they make good films but in the case of these live-action remakes
in particular, they're starting to get very stale
this movie has none of the vitality of the original story very little of the energy and the emotion and
humor seems to best rip away in favor of a bland retelling of a story that
we all know and love but still, you've got to hand it to the people behind the
scenes making this film the technical artists the people behind the visual
effects because it is stunning and it is potentially game-changing in that way
for what you can do with digital characters it's just that it was in service of
a copy and paste movie I'm gonna give the Lion King a seat I think Disney has
tapped into something here I think they know exactly what they're doing and
they are going to make so much money with this movie because nostalgia
nostalgia sells sand people will go and see a movie where they know exactly
what's going to happen because they already loved that movie and they will look
at another movie just to see how that movie looks I don't know what's happening
but for some reason that was really funny to me so yeah like if you want to put
a blu-ray for this movie The Lion King
2019 was the Lion King anyway guys thank you so much as always for look forward
to a review of the HBO series Chernobyl, I'm almost done thank you guys so much
as always for reading and if you like this you can comment write here and get
Steppen eyes
0 Comments