Aladdin

Rating: 9/10 (26 May 2019)

Aladdin
2019
PG
director:Guy Ritchie
starring:Mena Massoud,Naomi Scott,Will Smith,Marwan Kenzari,Navid Neghaban,Nasim Pedrad etc

overall rating 94/100
Aladdin was fantastic and one of Disney's best live actions lets talk about why this is.
Lets start of with the fantastic musical numbers. All the songs from the original were done brilliantly and were on a much larger more enjoyable scale, it bought back so much nostalgia from the 1992 classic and none of the songs were done badly. All the cast had great voices that added to the enjoyment of the songs and also the new songs that were added into the film worked really well as well. Especially Jasmines new song which was actually very powerful and had great female empowerment messages that really added to her character arc.
Next the film was actually very funny and achieved a very good comedic tone throughout. this was for 3 main reasons.
Firstly abu just like the original was very funny as Aladdins pet monkey, The CGI on Abu was impressive and the acting of the monkey was fairly realistic so therefore when the monkey was messing around and being funny it connected with the audience. Next is Jamsines handmaid Dalia, she had many funny moments including Will smiths genie, They had natural chemistry and Dalia was hilarious with how forward thinking and bubbly she was so she was a fun new character to add into the film. And finally the most funny parts of the film had to come from Will Smiths genie and Mena Massouds Aladdin. These two had so much great on screen comedic chemistry they were the glue that kept this film together as well as other aspects. The most funny scene in the film had to be when Aladdin first met Jasmine being Prince Ali.
Next i would like to add that all 3 lead actors Naomi Scott,Mena Massoud and Will Smith did a fantastic job with all 3 of there iconic characters. I was unsure of Mena Massoud playing Aladdin at first but i have to say he knocked it out of the park he looked like Aladdin and he had the same charm and cheekiness of the original character as well as having a good singing voice as well. Naomi scott also did a fantastic job as Jasmine adding to her independence and strength as a character she was fantastic here. And finally Will smith was absolutely fantastic as the genie. He in my opinion was the best part of the film. He had so much charm and charisma throughout this film, he was as we expect from the genie charming funny and charismatic. Will smith also made the character into his own instead of trying to imitate Robin williams iconic version of Genie which i loved and he was great in both Genie form which i have to say did have fairly bad CGI for his character considering its 180M budget but you got used to it after a while.
Next the film had fantastic visuals. The set designs for agrabah and everything inside were so beautiful and interesting to look at the film would of still been good without as much dialogue it really made you feel part of there world ( no pun intended)
I also loved the further detail they added to the plot of the movie and its character arcs. I enjoyed Aladdins and jasmines backstories about losing there parents and feeling trapped. And i also loved that they gave the genie his own character arc as well as when he was set free he started a family with Dalia. But my favourite part of the new content added would have to be Jasmines character arc, like the original jasmine was a very strong independent character. But here she competed to be heard amongst powerful men and her becoming the sultan actually made sense and was a lot of fun to watch her rise to power.
However just a little thing about the plot i felt like the whole team behind this presumed everyone who would watch this film already knew the plot. As they rushed through some key plot points from the original this was not an issue for me and a most probably a large majority of the audience, but for some casual fans of the source material or new fans this might of been confusing or frustrating.
my next point is not really a negative but a slight constructive criticism. I actually thought that Marwen Kenzari did a good job at playing jafar. Despite him being fairly useless in the first half of the film he made up for it in the 2nd half, He was just so dislikable and evil with his actions which were more harsh and cruel then the original. I just thought he could of looked slightly more menacing and intimidating like the original but this did not bother me that much due to his strong performance.
Next i thought this film was actually very romantic, and as seen with its opening weekend numbers i think its also attracted some couples to its audience. Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott had a lot of romantic chemistry in this film, and it really made you feel for there characters and made the experience of them falling in love very sweet and enjoyable to watch.
I also loved that the film incorporated a more arabian tone and atmosphere to the original. This was done through things like bollywood dancing and more extravagant colour pallets, so i really loved that they went deeper into the roots of the Aladdin story.
And finally the film had excellent ideologies and themes. There was many incredible messages such as being yourself and finding your own voice by rising above the people who think they have power over you. I really enjoyed these ideologies that they conveyed to the audience and this was something slightly different from disney which i am not complaining about at all.
Overall Aladdin was another massive success for disney turning into one of my favourite live action remakes and achieving something rare by being as good as the animated classic.