Aladdin (2019) - Review Thread

We couldn't be on more opposite sides, as the original is my favorite Disney movie ever.  Period.  And Aladdin in this one honestly felt a bit more bland on his own in this one.

Some fuller thoughts:

I went in fairly skeptical after the horrible marketing campaign, fearing the worst, and you know what? It's...pretty good. It doesn't hold a candle to the original, though, but nor was it ever going to. The original is pure Disney magic, and this one has charm and likability, but I'm not sure about the magic.

So, what works here? Well, credit where credit's due, they took what was already a strong Disney princess -- Jasmine -- and made her even stronger. To the point where Naomi Scott pretty much walks away with the movie in the palm of her hand. She's the real MVP here. Jasmine was always a great character, but the filmmakers this time really turned it up to the nth degree with her. She's more strong, assertive, and just plain awesome here. Also, I'll admit, the relationship between her and Aladdin is a bit more fleshed out. Another thing, naturally is Will Smith as Genie. His performance honors Robin Williams while still making it his own. I'm still not quite sold on his beatbox version of Friend Like Me, but his rendition of Prince Ali (while I hated it when I first heard it before seeing the movie) is just as infectiously toe-tapping as the original and does work when viewed in the context of the film. And his own friendship with this new Aladdin feels just as genuine as the original's.

What doesn't work so well? Despite some efforts to flesh him out, this new Jafar -- as a character -- feels a bit more bland and less menacing than the animated character. He also lacks the presence and swagger. His motivation here is what?  He wants to be "top dog" so he can invade a neighboring city to show Agrabah's dominance?  Thin, textbook villain motivation.  Mena Massoud as Aladdin himself...I can't tell if it's the script or the performance, but he also felt just a little bland in comparison to the original. It's not that I outright disliked him or anything, but there were times where I felt like he was sort of just going through the motions. The original did so much with his character while simultaneously doing so little, letting his characterization speak for itself.  As a result, Aladdin in that one felt more strongly defined, and you could buy into him both when he's himself and when he's putting on the Prince Ali facade and getting blinded by that.  Even with just a voice performance, the naturalism of Scott Weigner came through more clearly.  Again, I'm not saying Mena Massoud was bad, just slightly lacking in that needed twinkle.  Speaking of going through motions, that's another feeling I had concerning the script sometimes. Maybe the cost of developing Jasmine, the romance and the Aladdin/Genie dynamic more was having the rest of the story seeming rushed in some places, despite a running time that's half an hour longer than the original. There were places where I was thinking to myself, "Slow the fuck down!" Some of the script also has touches of typical Hollywood blandness when compensating for certain aspects. And finally, the CGI on Genie when he's blue...is not very convincing. There's a herky-jerky quality to it that just distracts, which is another reason why Friend Like Me didn't quite land.

So yeah, I'm honestly relieved this turned out good, even if it never really matches the heights of the original. And coming from a super-fan of the '92 OG, consider that a win.

Mena Massoud is fine.  Naomi Scott and Will Smith are great, however, and outshine him.  Guy Ritchie is mainly what I was getting at when I said the script was going through the motions sometimes.  Especially since he was also a co-writer.  Sequences like The Cave of Wonders felt rushed just a little, while things like trying to expand upon Jafar's motivation and him trying to manipulate The Sultan into that invasion felt forced.  However, he did a good job of hitting a majority of the major beats from the original while expanding on certain things like the romance and relationships between other characters.  The handful of slo-mo shots felt unnecessary, to, but to his credit, Richie didn't put nearly as many of them in as I feared he would.  Bottom line, he got right most of the things he needed to.

It's all over the place, really, but to quote a character from the movie: "It was clumsy, but in a charming sort of way."