Shining, Shimmering, not that Splendid

Rating: 6/10 (22 May 2019)

I came into the theater to watch this movie not as a Disney fan nor of the original Aladdin but as a fan of Guy Ritchie. And I must say I was not disappointed. His style is recognizable in some parts of the movie with slow motion shots, running in alleys and parkour in a way that give this version of Aladdin almost a British gritty aspect as Ritchie would do. I was mostly impressed with the latter's versatility by the "whole new world" which he created. This live-action remake is very colorful and very pleasing to the eyes even though the cinematography is not constantly solid but it was compensated with aesthetics by the production. Also it should be noted that Will Smith's version of the genie was very unique and he was able to give it his touch making him one of the most if not the most imposing character on screen. As soon as he appears he almost gives a second life to the movie that was much needed. Which leads me to my last praise, this was wayyy funnier than i expected it to be. Will Smith's performance and lines had a whole part of the cinema laughing out loud at multiple occasions.
On the other hand there was quite a few things that could have been improved on. For example there are many instances where I could not help but pay too much attention to the CGI Abu (which weirdly actually appears as a real monkey on frame making the CGI version look even worse), or a few greenscreen shots (i'm guessing) running on rooftops being quite janky. My major complaint though would be the casting for Jafar. While i do think that Marwan Kenzari did a good job with the character i just feel that an actor with a more ominous look and voice would have definitely worked a lot better like his co-star who played Hakim ( Numan Acar). It should be noted that a few of the scenes acted by Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud were a bit cringeworthy but they did seem like they were having fun playing those characters.
Overall, i think the positives outweigh the negatives by a bit and that the movie does not appear quite as magical as the original did but that is because the bar was set extremely high.
I would rate this movie a 6.5/10 !!