fine live-action remake

Rating: 7/10 (10 August 2019)

Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) has snuck out of the palace to be among her people. She gives bread to some young urchins but she has no money to pay. Street-wise thief Aladdin (Mena Massoud) comes to the rescue. Jasmine is destine to be married away to a prince. The Sultan's scheming advisor Jafar recruits Aladdin to retrieve a lamp and nothing else from the Cave of Wonders. He finds a magic carpet as well. Jafar takes the lamp and abandons him in the cave. Aladdin's faithful monkey Abu grabs the lamp and they escape on the flying carpet. He rubs the lamp and is shocked by the magic Genie (Will Smith) who gives him three wishes.
Disney has settled on this lucrative formula of remaking old animated classics into live-action films. It's safe. Families can take their kids. The IP is well-established. They have plenty of material in the Disney vault. It all makes sense as long as Will Smith is purple. The casting fits. The setting is CGI but reasonably real enough. There are no complaints about the production. A purple Will Smith comes with some issues but somehow he fits the role. I do have an issue with People sees what they want to see. It's a fine idea and there is a movie logic to it. What is missing is emotional logic. It's missing the narrative logic. The audience wants them to be in fantasy love. She has to recognize him right away. The movie does save it by her recognizing him quickly and him spinning the lie. The story needs to help her out a bit. Maybe, she doesn't recognize him right away because her encounter with him is during the dark of night and she didn't get a good look at him. In addition, he could be made into a Robin Hood character and he's hiding among the shadows deliberately. It's maybe asking too much to change the story but it shouldn't be set in stone. Quite frankly, I like the start of the movie and that's probably the biggest change from the animated movie. I've never been convinced about Superman either.