Aladdin or The Will Smith Show?

Rating: 6/10 (24 May 2019)

My Review- Aladdin I rate 6.5
I really am a sucker for classic Disney films but I think this one like Beauty and the Beast and Dumbo to my mind miss the boat ,possibly because humanising animation classics or trying to bring them up to date adds nothing to the original.
It's a good cast Mena Massoud as Aladdin is engaging as the rascally Aladdin ,Naomi Scott is charming and feisty as Princess Jasmine and has a lovely voice .
Will Smith is very talented but at times the whole movie just seems to be the Will Smith show. Will is cast as The Genie and Mariner and just doesn't have the humour and brilliance of Robin Williams or his voice in the original animated classic.
Aladdin has already been humanised in the Broadway musical brilliantly but this is not a film of the musical,perhaps a pity they didn't make it one.
There are only 4 original songs from the musical and one good new song for Naomi Scott to belt out "Speechless " an anthem to transform Princess Jasmine into a modern woman of today ready to take on any man who tries to takes her power away ,which is a good role model for children watching the movie but alas I think they'd be bored by the time it arrives.
There are some very good scenes in Aladdin , like Aladdin's entrance into Agrabah,it's the best entrance into a city since Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra entered Rome and if it's the first time you've seen Aladdin there's lots to like but I hope this is the last version and I also hope and think the new humanised Lion King will be better.
I imagine when Studio executives sit around discussing these hopefully multi million dollar blockbuster remakes that the main requirements discussed are ,let's pour the cash in to get an A list Star and Director plus the latest CGI which I'm beginning to think stands for Costly Graphic Indigestion.
What ever happened to let's do something new and original
that hasn't been done to death before ,perhaps the last 2 or 3 poor box office performers from Disney may change their mind.
The most successful Disney revisit and not a remake lately has been Mary Poppins Returns,which cost USD 130,000,000to produce and so far World wide has grossed USD349,219,485 it out grossed Dumbo, The Nutcracker and the Four Realms ,which barely covered its production cost but I quite enjoyed for it's originality.
I look forward to Lion King with Avengers :Endgame director Jon Favreau and an amazing cast I hope I can give it a 9 or 10 rating.