"How could you?"

Rating: 3/10 (9 June 2019)

Jafar the street rat trying to relate to Aladdin prior to the cave .... evil became so much less. Why eliminate the jail scene? "The one who has the gold makes the rules." The truly evil mystery of Jafar turns into the predictable future aspiring conqueror. Boring!
The talking parrot ... Iago is gone. "Owww that hurt!"
Abu The Thief with no heart. Did you forget Abu arguing with Aladdin and the scene with the bread / kids ... now instead Abu just steaks from Jasmine. Lame.
Jasmine the sultan - who needs a man. Fair is she seeks out romance still but it feels hollow - especially after Prince Ali shows up.
How is Jasmine (who admits to never leaving the palace) more "smooth" with people than a street rat Aladdin? The Throne room scene with Prince Ali is tortuous and the curtesy - is Aladdin the one who lived as a outcast not a smooth talking city thief? Or was Aladdin always on a iPhone with no social skills?
Why can't Jasmine and Aladdin be equals? This felt like Aladdin is timid, no confidence even at the end, and just unable to learn. Jasmine seems single minded on the throne like Jafar was in the original, love is just a side goal to her law degree and taking over her dad's firm. The uneducated Aladdin is the man candy perk who is not her equal in any way. A safe play.
Did Jafar ever show he wanted Jasmine to marry him as a means to power? Not in this. Even better Jafar seems to never really show lust. "Tell me more about me" originally so evil.
I enjoyed Will Smith but how can a phenomenal powerful genie not know Aladdin's name? More so, comedy? Much of the comedy by Robin Williams made the original movie - Will Smith can sing and dance but comedy is hollow. Will Smith did the best Hitch job he could. But why did the Hulk and the Smurfs create a baby genie? "Look at me from the side ..."
CGI much, it was Avatar meets Aladdin in many scenes - and a cheap Avatar at that. "I can show you CGI, with some half inspired singing". "You will never again see the light of day!" "How snakelike I can be!" - so much opportunity lost to uninspired tween level capitalism. Disney can do CGI but this was a epic globe trotting fail.
Kudos on the Sultan, he seemed more a leader but opposite the original Sultan enjoying life riding carpet, he just feels the old tired wiseman but with guts to hit Jafar instead of yelling "guards".
Where's the character development? Jasmine pushing to change laws for love not power/inheritance? The sultan learning to accept a street rat as a man of character? Genie discovering friends (Abu/carpet) not just Aladdin. Aladdin discoveries love through truth and that lies have prices.
Jafar still learns the price of power - in less than 5 minutes burning all 3 wishes like a man born into power without a thought ... anti storyline and far from developing a thought out scheme.
I enjoy a good twist. Yet ironic that here the maid can long for Genie more passionately than Jasmine for Aladdin. Creative license is great, but you guys "tried so hard, and got so far, but in the end, it doesn't even matter." - Linkin Park
Role reversals can work, but when you wholesale remove characters Central to comedy/story lines - and add irrelevant characters (you can remove the maid with 0 change to the result). Plus, gut key scenes to evolving personality and development, how can you hope to succeed?
At no point did the story come close to the original. And if that's the goal - you succeeded. The singing is all weaker, humor - do you guys know humor using cultural references - is absentee, and love - I believe Genie loves the maid and Jasmine loves being Sultan but that's it. Even Jafar's love of power comes off as a bitter teenager who wants to be a billionaire - not really genuine.
Aladdin feel prey to capitalists at Disney just like Star Wars destroyed their own Universe of core planets for a movie instead of growing the universe. Capitalist greed - the death of good story telling. Not the actors/actresses fault, that's just how the cookie crumbled.