Very pleasantly surprised

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2019)

I love the 1992 Aladdin movie (and have fond memories of the first sequel with Jafar the Genie as well), so when Disney inevitably announced the live action remake of it I was cautiously intrigued. Their previous live action remakes of their animated classics have mostly been a decent enough experience to watch but only a few of them really managed to stand out as fantastic, which in my opinion very much include Beauty and the Beast as possibly the best of them all which could arguably also be said of its animated forerunner.
My interest quickly faded when Guy Ritchie was announced as the director as I had a hard time picturing him slapping together anything close to what the original movie was with his somewhat unique style of directing and editing. I love some of his older movies, but besides the whole "street-rat, orphaned hero thief" which fit his usual narrative, nothing else seemed to fit between the two. And when Will Smith was cast as the Genie my expectations plummeted. I love Will Smith but he has zero range as an actor and never really manages to portray anything but the Fresh Prince, just in different situations (although to be fair I have seen him in a few films where he showed both range and great talent instead of smug charme, but they are few and far between).
However this movie turned out to be as much of a copy/paste remake as Beauty and the Beat, which is not meant as a bad thing but a very good one. The cast was outstanding, although the Aladdin took some getting used to, and the few changes the movie did to the original story was well done. All the original music remains within the new movie, sung by the new cast and while it never reach the same level as the original movie in most cases, it almost nails it but makes up for it more than once by amazing dance coordination, costume and set designs.
Most surprisingly was certainly Will Smith, who from the start had the impossible task of taking over Genie from the late great Robin Williams. But his natural charming persona and comedy chops serves him well here, and instead of trying to emulate Williams in his portrayal, he combines the usual charm and smug confidence of the Fresh Prince with the emotional and fatherly touch he has tapped into since he seemingly became comfortable in his role as a father in real life. And while he might not be remembered for decades for being the Genie as much as Robin Williams was, he certainly managed to create something just as memorable.
Taste is taste, some people seem to dislike it quite a bit which I find suspiciously strange if they enjoyed the original movie, but instead of listening to them or me, I recommend seeing the movie and make up your own mind.