Better than I expected!

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2019)

I did what I think we all did and came in with pretty high reservations about Will Smith playing the genie. Funny enough, his performance is actually what I enjoyed the most! Even though Robin William will never be replaced or surpassed, Will Smith did a good job playing the part without trying to overshadow the original performance.
The story overall follows the original animated version. There are a few tweaks, some good some bad which I will cover below, but the songs and story are pretty much the same. But here is my overall breakdown of the good and bad of Aladdin.
The Good:
If you were a fan of the original, you will find this enjoyable at least. The actors do a good job vocally when covering the original songs. As mentioned before, Will Smith puts on quite a fun and enjoyable performance as the genie without trying to overthrow Robin Williams. Aladdin is great as well, mixing both charm and ignorance of higher society. Visually the movie is spot on. Overall, I had a lot of the same feelings I had when I watched the animated version as a kid.
The Bad:
Pretty weak performance by Jafar IMO. I felt his character was lacking in the terror and evil that embodied the animated version. I felt like there was a bit too much overacting. While I thought Jasmine had a great voice, her character was extremely annoying. I also felt (and currently feel) that Disney is going way too far with the "Men are stupid and only women are fit to rule anything." I won't go into a specific part as to avoid spoilers, but there is one completely out of place solo from Jasmine at the near end of the film and a strange shift from the original that I thought was Disney just trying to be appeasing and PC (women rule and men suck essentially). If those specific aspects of the film were removed, it would have been a better experience overall.
Overall, I would definitely recommend and I would say this is the best live action adaptation that has been done recently for Disney. I should expect all Disney films to pander to the PC culture, but I keep hoping someday society will get past this idiotic phase. If you can overlook this, it will be a great film. And finally, another applause to Will Smith's performance with I apologize for criticizing before I saw the film. Enjoy!