Competent but prodictable and "upgraded" (not always good)

Rating: 5/10 (22 October 2019)

One of the only reasons I was conned into watching this movie which by it's very existance (like the previously re-re-made into "live" action film "Beauty And The Beast") is essentially a total cash cow, was because once respectable film director Guy Ritchie was attached to it.
Like many hyper-over-budgeted Hollywood mega productions, the level of the director's creative vision is always questionable, especially when balancing so many producers, exÃ©cutives, and other A-listers who, along with other boardroom "alumnis", have too many hands in the "creative" process.
They could have added something apparently "missing "from the 90s animated version, but aside from two new rather uninspired songs (and that's a shame because one of them has potent lyrics) and a myriad of goofy-looking CGI effects, the film's only raison-d'etre appears to fulfill this post Y2K craze of constantly remaking and rebooting stuff ad nausium.
What first ruined the suspension of disbelief was the rather clunky genie effect: aside from when Will Smith performs as a "human" and one scene where, as a genie, you basically only see his head, the whole CGI-ed enhanced blue Will Smith effect feels rather odd, like a very well make CGI model but there is still somethingg "off" about the motion and how Smith's performance is "blended" into said 3D model. This is by no means a critique of either Smith's acting abilities nor what can only be an incalculable amount of hours spent programming, rendering, layering, and texturizing the genie, but in the end is still looks like something out of a computer, and whatever real Will Smith was left in there appears to be almost "doll"-like in appearance. Maybe most people won't notice this (like the Young Flynn CGI face over Jeff Bridges' in the modern Tron film - how could some have not noticed that?) seeing as how since The Matrix, all big budget films feel the need to oversaturate us with CGI as if attempting to subdue us into believing it to be mistakened for real action/characters.
There is also a few odd moments where the film (or rather digital photography) appears to be "sped up" - an effect more commonly used these days but in some instances, such as the first chase through the market early in the film, it feels artificial, almost like those old film reels which were shot at a smaller rate of frames per second but projected at 24FPS. Maybe this was an intentional effect that they decided to keep in, to remind us that this is, after all, a fairie tale musical and therefore should not be mistaken with reality in any way.
Anyway, the film isn't a total disaster, as for the most part is it competent and entertaining, but like all too many big Hollywood mega budgets, and especially Disney remakes of remakes, it comes off as un-necessary.