As expected: A painful remake without meaning and soul!

Rating: 1/10 (23 February 2020)

Guy Ritchie (he made both Sherlock Holmes films with Robert Downey Jr.) released the remake of "Aladdin" in 2019. A film that nobody asked for! But Disney does not hesitate to reissue the last cartoon from the Renaissance period with spectacular CGI effects and no soul. Disney's remake trend has certainly left no trace. Some think it's great, many others hate the direction the megacorporation is taking. "Beauty and the Beast" was too much for me, even if I liked "Cinderella" and "The Jungle Book". But the last two films have brought at least some new aspects into the story. But now Disney is not only trying to recreate its original films one-to-one as "real films", they even use the same music ... It is just sad and especially from the group that was known in the 20th century for trying new things. Walt Disney himself would surely turn around in the grave! That's why my wife and I actually wanted to avoid these Disney remakes from now on and not leave any money at the box office, but due to a Disney presentation at their university (on the topic of Jafar), she was almost forced to do it and I didn't want to leave her alone ... And when the film was over, we could hardly believe it!
The story should be known: The young street thief Aladdin falls in love with the princess Jasmin, who lives in her palace as if she was locked up. But the evil grand vizier Jafar wants to become the new sultan and uses the innocent Aladdin to get a magic lamp ...
Almost needless to say that I still love the cartoon and think it's great. The music, the characters, everything is so wonderfully done. Even worse, Disney really thinks you need a remake of this almost perfect film. But above all, "Aladdin" is still the newest of all remakes (1992 in America), it should be remembered very well by many. But who cares? Money!!! I start with the positive, because there is one aspect of the film that was good for me: Will Smith.
So many made fun of his look as a jinni, but Smith was a very good choice for me. Sure, Robin Williams will always be unbeatable, but Smith actually got his own touch on the character and was by far the best actor with fun and energy.
But that's it ... Mena Massoud as Aladdin is terrible, Naomi Scott as Jasmin is at best passable, and Marwan Kenzari as Jafar pale and boring! But I'm sure the biggest problem is the script. As with "The Beauty and the Beast", the creators here try to incorporate new story elements in order to artificially inflate the story and, above all, make the film longer. Films like "Cinderella" from 2015 did that in places, but in my eyes parts of the story were expanded there that didn't work so well in the original. Here at "Aladdin" people thought they wanted to make great moments and scenes even better. One does without important little moments in which characters question or even regret their decisions and actions (there was a similar problem in the remake of "The Beauty and the Beast"). Instead, the whole film looks like a ticked-off list of the most important moments. No matter how, the main thing is that Aladdin gets the lamp. No matter how, but the main thing Jasmin falls in love with him. WHATEVER, but Jafar must be evil. It is a tragedy!
Moments like Jasmin's new songs were particularly aweful. Her final song, in which time is stopped, was the low point: a forced and weak attempt to swing the feminism club. It was clear from the beginning that Disney would mess up the figure of jasmine in this film, but that really surprised me. I guess in the upcoming remake of "The Lion King" Nala will sing a song at some point in the film that there can also be queens ...
But in the course of the film it became more and more clear that this is actually an animated film. A lot of things just don't fit into a live-action-film, for the same reasons why the filming of "Dragon Ball" was such a disaster. The exaggerated but charming character design has completely disappeared, which is why many characters seem so soulless and lifeless ...
I could go much further, but let's blaspheme about the music: Wow! What a certificate of poverty. I've already mentioned that Jasmin's songs are not really good and don't leave a lasting impression. But almost all of the old classics were underlaid with a painful electro beat. Probably because Will Smith does a lot of hip-hop? Everything seems so wrong. Menken's original music is so terrific and has this jazzy flair. Hip-hop doesn't fit in there. "Quickly away" was particularly terrible, while "Prince Ali" sounded okay.
And visually there is also nothing good to note: The CGI effects are often horrible, especially when Aladdin is riding on the flying carpet. All figures and sets seemed as if they were just parts of a film. Nothing ever felt real. The costumes and the sets all looked so cheap, and a street boy like Aladdin shines with clean clothes and white teeth ...

Finally, the film is much too long: 129 minutes! The original came out perfectly at 91 minutes, but today everything has to be bigger and more epic, no matter what the price!
Conclusion: Will Smith tries to save some things, but "Aladdin" from 2019 is a pitiful attempt to improve an existing classic. A soulless work that did not understand why the original is so good. Dark and ugly CGI is apparently what everyone wants now. Timeless animation? This is for kids! And unfortunately, you can see from the successful box office earnings that Disney continues to get away with it. I hope that someday people will wake up and ask for something new, but that will obviously take a long time ... But there is hope: we have the control. If we no longer fall into these obvious nostalgia traps and waste our money in them, we may soon be able to admire new ideas!