It's what Disney has set us up to expect.

Rating: 6/10 (29 May 2019)

Ever since Disney first announced they were releasing live action versions of their movies, I was excited for this Aladdin. After all, I was raised on the three cartoon movies and Robin Williams' classic Genie. To go off on a tangent for a moment, Beauty and the Beast is my favorite movie from Disney's second Golden Age of animation, but the live action movie was pretty rough. Aladdin made some of the same mistakes that Beauty and the Beast made. That is to say, choosing a big named actor that can't really sing well and drowning them with auto-tune rather than casting actual singers in a musical. In a world with eight billion people, and coming from an acting background, I can say with 100% certainty that there are amazing actors/singers out there by the truck load. Yet, we still had to suffer through a robotic Emma Watson trudging through "Something There." Now, in the same vein, we have Will Smith trying his damndest to give the Genie a fresh (prince) new take on his songs, but they fall flat and in many places made me physically cringe. That said, Will Smith still provides a lot of laughs and I found myself liking him more and more as the movie went on. To be fair, though, I've always been a fan. Aladdin himself was largely auto-tuned as well, and not a great actor. Jasmine definitely stood out as an actor, and was the best singer as well. The special effects widely varied from strange looking and odd to dazzling and incredible depending on which scene or song you were taking part in. It's hard to describe, but at certain points the speed of the actors varied, like they were sped up in some parts to better match their lips with the music? I think you'll notice it when you see it. Many parts of the movie felt and looked more like a really well done YouTube video than a multi-million dollar Disney summer blockbuster. The additional songs sung by Jasmine about female empowerment, though not my favorite musically, send a good message and seemed to resonate with some of the more vocal kids in the audience. All in all it's not a masterpiece, but I had a good time and will likely watch it again at some point.