Aladdin - 5.4/10

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2019)

Since there aren't many good things about this film, that's what this will start with. Firstly, Will Smith is absolutely incredible as the genie and easily the best part of the movie. The genie is expressive, colorful, bright and very much magical. This is the aspect of the movie that matches closest to the original animation. Each scene with the Genie is very entertaining and he carries the movie in a way. Second, the musical aspect of this movie is great. The music sounds on point and for the most part performed well. Aladdin is played well by Mena Massoud and portrays the character well as matched to the animation. That's just about it for all the good things about Aladdin. The film's plot is atrocious, it is boring, uninteresting and dragging. This is mainly what made the second half so boring, it feels like you're being forced to care about a story they don't actually try to make you care for. The second half is so boring you could likely fall asleep unintentionally. Also, the movie feels insanely sped up at the start. It feels like they're speeding through important things, and many are just disregarded which brings the story down. A lot of this film just doesn't make sense, infact in some cases it seems that Guy Ritchie (director) just felt like some things didn't need to be explained because everyone has seen Aladdin before. Many things like Jafar turning into a Cobra or Raja doesn't work in this movie whatsoever. Jafar doesn't even turn into a cobra, and Raja barely plays a part in this movie other than seeming menacing to others. Jafar was absolutely terrible in this movie, they don't give you any reason to hate him. The guy is just there and is what makes the film feel so dragged. There's this one annoying way of storytelling, and it's that Jafar's parrot overhears everything in the castle and tells Jafar everything. It's overused and completely bland. CGI is also bad in many of the scenes. It's pretty obvious and used in many scenes that didn't quite need it, however it is obvious that they put most of their CGI money into the Genie scenes, and that has definitely paid off. This movie just proves that some animated movies deserve to be kept the way they already were. There are aspects that belong to animated movies, and Aladdin just shows in comparison to it's original that many of these things wouldn't work whatsoever in a live-action movie. Regardless, this movie is still a fun ride throughout most of it, and enjoyable if you're there for the Genie.