Different but good

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2019)

First off, I was completely not sure about Will Smith as the genie, but, I was pleasantly surprised with him as the genie. Robin Williams left big shoes to fill but Will Smith did good. There were parts of the movie that were very true to the original like some of the songs.
I think my only complaints are the lack of Gilbert Gottfried as Iago the parrot. His character definitely added a unique dynamic to the partnership between Him and Jafar. Although this parrot in the new film talked some...it lacked a real character development behind it that made the first film a success. Also I believe the Sultan needed to be a little more silly and naive like in the original. It is small things like that that make the film memorable.
Other than that, it is understandable that not everything translates well from animated to live action but there were parts of the original story that didnt need to be changed or were missing.
Overall, the acting was decent, Will Smith was great, and the story remained close to the original. If they would've had Gottfried it would've been 10 stars but overall solid family fun.