Pros and cons. But Will Smith takes on the Genie and does it good

Rating: 7/10 (24 May 2019)

For anyone who's watched the original.
Face facts. This will never be the original.
However. It's a bloody good attempt.
The music performances are excellent and despite reading many reviews expecting to see a poor performance from Will smith. I was actually really happy with his performance of the genie. He doesn't taint Robin Williams classic performance nor does he make it better. Smith takes the role as his own and despite many nods to Williams, Will Smith puts his own unique qualities into the character.
Also a nod to both Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott for good performances and great singing abilities.
This is also not a complete remake of the original classic. But an updated version with a lot more depth and structure. The story is filled out more with a lot more depth to Jasmines character which in this day and age is a welcome change.
I have 2 criticisms. 1/ I think they missed a trick taking Iago out of the storyline as a sub character. This film he's a mere pet bird with generic parrot phrases. No humour like in the original. That for me was a real shame.
2/ At no point did Jafar come across as an evil villain. His persona and look in the original goes down in history of a fine villain. This film doesn't portray that at all. Despite the exact same aims and goals, this Jafar seems like a school child trying to impress the bullies at school by being mean to others. I'm unsure if it was how Ritchie had portrayed the character or if it was down to the performance of Marwan Kensari. All in all. I would suggest ignoring the critics and go for pure nostalgia and a great Disney film.