Not a Diamond in the Rough; An Ordinary Lump of Coal

Rating: 4/10 (26 May 2019)

To be honest, Aladdin could have been a lot worse than it actually is. But what we do have is a limp and lifeless remake that only makes me want to rewatch the brilliant animated film again. To give it some credit, though he was never going to compete with the irreplaceable Robin Williams, Will Smith does a decent job at putting his own spin on the Genie. Naomi Scott also makes for a great Princess Jasmine, and gets easily the best song of the whole film. Written by the Dear Evan Hansen, La La Land and The Greatest Showman songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul, "Speechless" is a powerful ballad. But as a whole, Aladdin 2019 feels like a cheap $180 million TV movie, that is lacking a lot of the energy that the original had. Musical numbers like "Prince Ali" fall flat because they're missing the wondrous visuals that animation can provide, whilst Guy Ritchie, already a questionable fit for the material, seems to have had nearly all of his directorial voice scrubbed out. Not to mention, the changes that are made, particularly involving Jafar, don't really mean anything. But worst of all, the film is simply unengaging. Though it's not as misguided as Tim Burton's Dumbo, this is the most definitive proof thus far at how scarily competent, yet entirely pointless, Disney's live-action remakes are overall. Well, probably at least until The Lion King in July.