Colorful reimagining!

Rating: 6/10 (6 June 2019)

Nothing will ever compare or come close to the magic of the original, but this was a job well done. The casting was about half way. Mena Massoud was fantastic as Aladdin and Will Smith brought his own to the genie. The main problem with the movie is that it was too "Indian"! Aladdin is Arabian. Two very different cultures and mixing them is no better than white washing. I'm not normally one to complain about this sort of thing, but it was so blatantly obviously wrong! From the dancers and costumes to the casting, they completely missed the mark on Arabia and instead delivered an almost Bollywood rendition. The bigger problem with the movie however, was that it was not really "Aladdin"; it was "Jasmine"! The movie tries to do feminism and makes a bold statement with "Speechless", but it doesn't really deliver. It did not fit into the movie's original storyline and seemed quite out of place and very overdone. The movie ends with an "all about Jasmine" theme and if the movie weren't titled "Aladdin" I would have thought it was done from her perspective. If it were more subtle and woven better into the storyline it would have made for a better fit and not stolen the spotlight off Aladdin.