Pale Imitation of the Original

Rating: 5/10 (15 June 2019)

Aladdin was one of the VHS' that I watched almost daily. Like it and the other late 80's/early 90's Disney masterpieces, it was a big part of my childhood. It's still an enjoyable watch as an adult, but it was it's most magical when you're a kid. Robin Williams is still the best part hands down.
Similar to the original, Genie is the best part....but not so much a diamond in the rough, maybe more like cubic zirconia. Will Smith does his best without aping on the late Williams, but even as entertaining as he is it's the rest of the cast that brings him down.
The cast of this, besides Smith, are essentially human sandpaper. Aladdin is the worst offender. He reads lines so dryly, you'd think his lungs were full of sand. Sure, he cant match up to an animated character who is extremely expressive, but he barely even tries. Lines you'd think would have character and nuance, sound like he is reading the script for the first time at the table read.
Jasmine is passable, though her handmaiden is beyond annoying and for some reason is one of the main characters who gets an arc? I'm fine with them adding their own touch to the original, but her addition is no more than a romantic interest for the genie at the end.
It picks up a little towards the middle, but holy hell is the first hour of this beyond boring. It takes forever for them to even get to Genie.
The sets too feel way too fake and 100% feel like a stage play with a green screen behind it. None of it feels lived in or dirty or real. Even the characters who roam the streets and deserts have THE cleanest clothes. Agribah must have stellar launders or something.
So just add this to the pile of pointless live-action remakes of Disney classics. They all suffer from not straying too much from the originals to be their own thing and just pale in comparison. They're all just trying too hard to cater to the people who love the originals. They're literally just watching the same movie copy and past with real people. No originality or anything that make them special. Adding new songs doesn't effect them at all, as the new songs usually are bad and don't fit with the style of the originals.
Disney doesn't have too many more classics to re-make, so our suffering will soon be over unless they tackle some of the early 2000's trash that the studio released...