Not a whole new world

Rating: 5/10 (7 June 2019)

Disney continues with their live action remakes of their classic cartoons at breakneck speed. I do wonder if they should had spaced them out more.
Guy Ritchie brings a more subdued style like he has been hemmed in by Disney or he just wanted to make a family film that one day he can watch with his grandkids.
Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is the street urchin in Agrabah. The diamond in the rough who frees a genie (Will Smith) from a lamp and is granted three wishes. He transforms himself into a charming prince in order to marry Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) the woman he rescued from the market as she wandered outside the palace incognito.
The evil Vizier Jafar wants the lamp for his own purposes to rule the kingdom.
Ritchie has made a more respectful version of Aladdin. At least most of the cast come from the middle east. He also adds as a joke, a token white man. Billy Magnussen plays a Scandinavian prince, a potential suitor for the princess.
The whole film though is rather anemic. Gone is the freestyling of Robin Williams genie. Will Smith is following a script, the classic songs are here. The princess has a modernist interpretation but it is never more than average and certainly not better than the animated film from 1992 because it brings little that is new to the table.