A Decent Adaptation of the Disney Classic, No More but No Less

Rating: 7/10 (13 July 2019)

With any remake, one of the key questions is: Do you stick to the source material and get called unoriginal? Or do you go your own way and get accused of blaspheming the classic property? Guy Ritchie (who pulls double duty, as a screenwriter and the director) and his team chose the 2nd option. To my surprise, the movie is better for it. They give Jasmine more depth and a stronger motivation, they add in a handmaiden character Dalia (Nasim Pedrad) who brings some warmth to the Jasmine's plight. Will Smith's Genie isn't a carbon copy of the Robin Williams version, they keep enough of what made that character so memorable but Will gets to add his flavour to it and it largely works. They also make minor changes the ending but it never feels false or unearned. I hate it when movies just ignore source material (The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies comes to mind) but I think they made some choices and most of them payed off. If you're going to make that kind of deviation, it better be good and hats off to them for making the correct decision.
The original Aladdin is a classic for so many reasons but I always go back to 2 things, the character of the Genie (voiced and performed by Robin Williams in a masterful job) and the music. Once again, they weren't just content to recycle the music (although every musical number from the original film is in the movie) and they tweak the numbers and add a couple of new ones. The movie is more mixed here, most of the music is alright (A Whole New World, One Jump are both done justice) but a couple of the numbers are a little off. Will Smith is a movie star and a rapper but he is still not a great singer and while Friend Like Me is still solid, Arabian Nights and Prince Ali have some cringe-worthy moments. He doesn't fail and it could have sounded worse, but I still wish it had been better in those areas.
Aladdin largely looks good, the CGI on it passes the test. I liked the effects with Carpet and Abu which could have been so easy to screw up. It would be more of a surprise if it looked crappy, the budget on this is high and with the might of "The Mouse" behind it, it looks the part. I also liked how the musical numbers and action were filmed, Guy Ritchie does a better job fitting into this genre than I thought he would of and both the action and the dancing is well choreographed and filmed. There is one moment where he has to use his slow motion effects and it just made me laugh. It was like he just couldn't help himself. But otherwise, Aladdin is well shot and looks the part.
Will Smith is the big name in the cast, and maybe I'm a little biased, but the most important because the Genie might be my favourite character in the Disney cannon. Will does as good of a job as could be expected, he's not fantastic but he's a lot better than people were predicting. He's able to put his spin on the character and it works more than it doesn't. I liked both Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott as Aladdin and Jasmine respectively. Neither wowed me but they both were good in every respect. Marwan Kenzari was surprisingly effective as Jafar, he chews the scenery but I think he walked that line without going too far (you could make a drinking game out of his performance, take a shot every time he yells into nothing). I also really liked Nasim Pedrad as Dalia. She's grounding for the movie and she helps keep things light. Navid Negahban gets very little to do as the Sultan so I can't really comment either way.
This is a decent adaptation of an animated movie that borders on being a masterpiece. I saw this with my family and everyone pretty much had the same reaction. It takes two steps forward and one step back, the movie has an odd construction where things don't always fit from scene to scene. It feels like in an effort to keep the pace up, they threw things together in the editing booth and maybe overdid it by cutting too much out. Otherwise this version of Aladdin gets the job done, the animated release is the better movie hands down but I wouldn't mind watching this again. It could have been better but this gets the job done and it was better than expected.