It's good but not great!

Rating: 8/10 (17 June 2019)

The visuals are amazing but in 2019 that's to be expected with all the technology at their disposal, especially Disney! So that leaves us with the acting and storyline, which unfortunately felt rushed in the beginning and led to a rather poor energy throughout the entire story. They made the main characters get close to fast without enough time spent developing them beforehand. I understand it's following the original story closely but I have a hard time believing the connection was so strong and it shows onscreen also as they seem to be following one-another in shock most of the opening. I'm afraid the actors didn't have the required chemistry early on and it led to a poor start.
The thing is Aladdin got better as it went on, but Jasmine I felt was looking through him the entire time, it felt she was acting rather than really there. Similar to Will Smith's acting, I felt like it was him acting not the actual genie. That's why most of the film is miscast, they chose people who are good singers or popular talents but not good actors, I can guarantee if this movie was cast based on acting talent it would've been 10x better.
I was never afraid of Jafar like the original, here he felt like a bully and not dangerous in anyway. I kept thinking just push him off the building and the stories over, come on!
I am not sure how they picked the actors for this but it's just not working, Will Smith can't sing this part that well, it sounds pretty bad IMO, maybe he sings ok other times but here it's to low and gutteral for me to buy it. I also already said I felt it was him acting or trying too rather than the actual character.
I give it 8 stars for being fun to watch but -2 because it should've been 10 easy but the lack of good casting and choosing talent over other concerns led to a movie I won't rewatch, the original is so much better!