Colorful combination of the original animated production and the Broadway hit that works except on two levels.

Rating: 5/10 (10 June 2019)

For the remake of Disney's Aladdin, the filmmakers get pretty much everything right with the exception of the photography and one major piece of casting. Much of the photography resembles the Universal films made in the 1940's with Jon Halll, Sabu and Maria Montez, and for that reason in many places it is beautiful to look at on a nostalgic level . But as with many films of this type today, the editing and camera work is frenzied and often too fast-moving, and at times, the film becomes extremely blurry. This makes it difficult at times to pull up many of the major details and in some of the musical numbers, particularly the ensemble numbers, trying to capture every element of it becomes difficult.
For example, in a friend like me, so much is happening that when you want to see everything, it begins to become difficult to do that and that makes it both frustrating and headache inducing. However, on the other hand, the Prince Ali production number is beautifully put together as if it were Elizabeth Taylor arriving in Rome as Cleopatra and every element of that is a 10 out of 10. For a whole new world, while it is said at night, much of the effects are set among photography that is too dark and certainly the lighting could have made it more profound.
Casting wise, it took some doing but I found Mena Massoud charming as Aladdin and Naomi Scott appropriately feisty and strong as the independently minded Jasmine even though her actions would have had her imprisoned within the castle walls in real life. The evil Jafar, as played by Marwan Kenzari, has incredible magnetism, even sexier than Massoud, but he is lacking in the humor of Jonathan Freeman animated villain. Of course there is going to be a comparison of Will Smith to Robin Williams, and in avoiding doing so, I still found his performance to be bland and basically just phoned in. He has no sparkle and seems to be just there, only briefly coming to life such as the finale where Aladdin grants him a gracious final wish.
There is so much to like here, but it is also too much of everything to try to capture in one viewing, and it really isn't worth the time or cash to go back to the theater to see it again. It might play better on video where the details aren't as huge. The opening scene makes it seem like you're about to see something out of pirates of the Caribbean, another Disney franchise, and ironically, part of the ending of this film made me think that they might try a sequel. Disney, please leave well enough alone and let sleeping Jafar lie.