- Disney is making too many of these Live Action remakes of animated classics.
- This movie as an obvious cash-grab by the studio that's dominating too much of the movie industry to begin with.
- Will Smith's blue genie looks weird.
OK, now that I've
gotten those talking points out of the way, I'm free to find Aladdin
topics that actually interest me.
For the most part.
I've liked Disney's live-action remakes the last few years. Maleficent
is a fun angle to come at Sleeping Beauty from. 2015's Cinderella
was a nice magic-lite take on the story. Pete's Dragon had a thoughtful
approach to the material. The Jungle Book was visually impressive.
Oddly, the remake I've had the most trouble with is by far the most successful
one: Beauty and the Beast. That movie is fine. Emma Watson is ideal
casting and you can see every dollar spent on screen. My issue with it is that
it adds nothing to the story that wasn't already in the animated movie. There's
no new perspective or twist on the storytelling. It's a slavish remake that
doesn't improve on anything already in the original. I left that movie mostly
wondering "what's the point?".
I'm all for the
idea of making Aladdin into a live-action movie. Of the Disney Renaissance
movies, it's probably the most ready for a Pirates of the Caribbean treatment.
It's full of exciting set pieces and is set in a distinctive and recreate-able
location. I don't always love director Guy Ritchie's movies (Sherlock Holmes,
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword), but he's a solid choice for a big-budget
fantasy action movie. After white-washed embarrassments like Exodus: Gods and
Kings and Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time in the last decade, I
love that Disney actually cast the movie with actors of Middle Eastern decent,
even though it meant casting relative unknowns (or under-served actors) other
than Will Smith. I was pretty bullish on this movie. I wanted it to be awesome.
Unfortunately,
this isn't going to be my "all the critics are wrong" piece. I had
almost exactly the same problems with this that I did with the Beauty and
the Beast remake. If you've seen the animated Aladdin, then you've
already seen this movie, only better and shorter. So, I won't even give a
summary of the story here. If you need one, go set aside 90 minutes and watch
the 1992 movie. You won't be disappointed. (And if you are, keep it to
yourself.) This Aladdin is trying to play by animated rules in a
live-action world. So...
...The bazaar
chase at the beginning with "One Jump Ahead" doesn't work. How many
good live-action chase scenes can you think of where someone is also singing?
Mena Massoud (playing Aladdin) mostly seems distracted by the singing part (or
lip-syncing) as he's jumping roofs and dodging guards. The movie has no idea
how to mix the singing and action.
...The movie
struggles to make Iago, Abu, and the Magic Carpet into characters. The more the
movie anthropomorphizes them, the more "uncanny valley" they get.
...There is no way
to make the Genie's songs as entertaining as they should be. In the original,
you get the sense that the directors gave Robin Williams a mound of coke right
before doing "Friend Like Me" or "Prince Ali" and told him
"Go", then a team of animators did everything they could to keep up. Will Smith doesn't bring the same energy to the role as Robin Williams, and
the movie doesn't really fill the void with anything else. Will Smith is doing
a watered-down Robin Williams instead of his own take. His songs are more
lethargic and understandably bound to reality.
...The Cave of
Wonders looks like it was made on a budget. There are a bunch of jewels, but
not at the level one can have in an animated movie. I got more 'cave' than
'wonder' from those scenes.
...Spoiler Alert:
There was no giant snake. The whole climactic sequence felt small scale. It all
happens in a single room, and Jafar never seemed as threatening as he
should've.
Had the movie been
less concerned with strictly recreating scenes and songs from the original
movie, I could see how all these things could've been turned into strengths
rather than weaknesses.
Naomi Scott as
Jasmine is the breakout star of this. That girl can sing. "A Whole New
World" wasn't really a duet. It was Mena Massoud trying to keep up with
her. He's not a bad singer. She's just better. She even gets her own anthem in
the movie: a new song called "Speechless" which Scott really nails.
Mena Massoud is fine in the movie. I think he's asked to do a little too much.
There aren't many actors who really could pull off everything the role requires
(singing, action, romance, wit). Will Smith is a fine Genie. He doesn't
disappear in the role. He shouldn't. Robin Williams didn't either, mind you.
With the non-human characters never really popping, Smith is asked to supply
most of the energy in the movie, which is too much for anyone. Nasim Pedrad
plays a new character, a handmaiden of Jasmine's names Dailia. I like Pedrad,
and she brings some "best friend in a RomCom" energy to the movie
that I appreciated. Billy Magnussen shows up as one of the princes vying for
Jasmine's attention. He's a goofball and has fun with it.
Marwan Kenzari's
Jafar was a bit of a bust. He wasn't given any personality. It was almost like
the movie was so afraid of falling into Middle Eastern villain tropes that they
forgot to write anything for the character at all. Navid Nedahban as the Sultan
was a non-entity, but the character was in 1992 as well.
Another problem
that this shares with the Beauty and the Beast remake is that making it
live-action calls attention to some of the problems with the original movie.
Somehow, being animated made the fact that Belle was a prisoner seem more
playful in the original Beauty and the Beast. It felt more nefarious in
the Emma Watson version. Similarly, Aladdin's story isn't all that
fleshed out. Every beat is rushed, especially Aladdin and Jasmine's
relationship. Massoud and Scott don't have immediate chemistry and the movie
doesn't leave much time for a relationship to develop. By the time it got to
the magic carpet ride, all I was thinking was "Girl, don't get on that
strange man's carpet. You barely know him and all he's done so far is talk
about jams, call you an item that can be bought, and upstage you on the dance
floor". The 1992 movie had these problems too, but I don't notice them as
much.
This has been a
surprisingly difficult Reaction to write. I don't want to rip this movie apart,
because it's more underwhelming than bad. It's a frustrating movie, but there
were things I liked about it. I obviously can't separate this from the 1992
original, so this has been more of a comparison than a review. Even though I'm
pretty down on this movie, I'm actually happy it open so strong in the box
office. Maybe it's because I like the diversity casting. Maybe I'm more of a
Will Smith fanboy than I let on. Or maybe I just like that Disney actually
opened a movie on Memorial Day weekend that wasn't a financial disappointment*.
Verdict: Weakly
Don't Recommend
*OK. A little
context. Disney sucks at Memorial Day releases lately. Solo: A Star Wars Story,
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales, Alice Through the Looking
Glass, and Tomorrowland all underperformed while carrying big
budgets. I find it refreshing to know that they aren't just cursed this
weekend.
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