Mere months after ‘Dumbo’ release, Disney have released another live action reimagining of a beloved animated classic with ‘Aladdin’. Compared to the other live action remakes we have seen from Disney in recent years, I would argue that ‘Aladdin’ had the most to prove when it comes to showing that these releases can in fact be more than just a quick cash grab. However, as soon as the first trailer came out, and the internet got its first look at Will Smith as the Genie, the film was pretty much dismissed by many. Sadly, this dismissal ended being warranted.

The issues that many had with other remakes from Disney remain ever present here, the film struggles to meet the high energy that oozes from the original 1992 animated classic in almost every way. To address the most pressing matter of the film, Will Smith as the Genie was never going to come close to matching the career defining moment that was Robin Williams’ excellent work from the original. It is impossible to think of the Genie as a character and not make that connection, as it was apparently the case that Disney animators let Robin adlib his lines and based the animation upon that.

With that said, Will Smith ends up being the major highlight here, he is clearly giving the role his absolute all. Even if in some moments it can become a tad in your face, anytime he was not on screen I found myself losing interest with the film. Most of this comes down to this previously mentioned lack of energy. Guy Ritchie takes the director’s chair for this, his distinct style is most definitely been toned down here, yet some scenes of slow motion and flash backs to scenes from literal moments ago do show up and are incredibly jarring to the point of providing some unintentional laughs.

A lot of the film simply feels flat, which is a major issue when your film is looking to be a grand musical. The numbers feel flat and uninspired, they aren’t terrible by any means but just lack any real exciting camera work, the exception being the films version of ‘Friend Like Me’ which thankfully tries its best to reach the wackiness of the original.

Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott have decent chemistry as the two leads and certainly look the part, but I feel the script and directing don’t allow them to do anything exciting with the roles. This is even more apparent with Jafar (Marwen Kenzari), the classic villain is reduced to a bland uncharismatic villain that we would expect to see in a lesser Marvel film, furthermore the decision to have Iago just be a parrot who kind of speaks but not to extent that Gilbert Gottfried did in the original.

Clocking in at over 40 minutes longer than the original, ‘Aladdin’ manages to entertain for most of its runtime, but any moment it diverges from the source material things fall apart almost instantly.

Director: Guy Ritchie
Writers: John August (screenplay by), Guy Ritchie (screenplay by)
Stars: Will Smith, Mena Massoud, Naomi Scott
Kyle Gaffney
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