Wanted to love but just could not...

Rating: 4/10 (22 September 2019)

I really wanted to love this, as a 90s baby, I grew up with the original Aladdin! I (mostly) like the idea of live-action remakes of my classic childhood films so we get to relive the magic all over again! I can really appreciate the effort and time that went into this project. However, I just could not get into it. I tried and tried and tried and tried. Ok now let's get to the casting... The guy who played Aladdin just BUGGED. He was so short, his lip syncing was bad and he didn't have any chemistry with anyone, not even the magic carpet. Naomi Scott who played Jasmine was great, especially her singing! I didn't dig the Genie side romance with Jasmine's friend played by Nasim Pedrad, it felt phony and forced. I didn't really care for her character mostly because I didn't feel she really added anything to the story. Her lines were a bit cheesy and overall her part felt like an SNL skit. The whole character of Jafar just did not work. The casting was not right for him and his entire character portrayal was off. Jafar's genie part was laughable. I like Will Smith and didn't mind him as the Genie, I guess? But Robin Williams is just the OG. All and all this is a miss for me, sorry Disney. Maybe the kiddos will dig it! But don't make a sequel... in reality it made over $1 billion so I'm sure we'll be forced with another Aladdin.