It was all right, but nothing you haven't seen before

Rating: 7/10 (17 June 2019)

I am not sure what is up with the trend of Disney redoing their old animated classics and turning them live action. Well, okay, there is the whole money thing; however, that does not really explain why people want to see almost the exact same film again or why Disney is releasing so many of these live action adaptations in 2019 as there have been two so far and at least one more to go. I would probably spread them out a bit, hold one back for hard times or something. This one is the live action Aladdin, and it was okay, but nothing that will blow you away in terms of new content.
The story is essentially the same as Aladdin dreams of wooing Jasmine the princess. He is given the opportunity to enter a cave and retrieve something for Jafar and it turns out to be a lamp containing a magical genie. Well, Aladdin now has three wishes and Jafar has schemes of his own as Aladdin wishes to win the princess and Jafar wishes to rule the kingdom!
The casting was pretty good as I thought Will Smith as the genie was the highlight of the film and he held it together making it more enjoyable. The guy who played Aladdin was rather good and Jasmine was most definitely a much better looking counterpart to the Disney princess she was playing in comparison to Emma Watson's Bell. Was not wild about the guy playing Jafar though as he did not really seem all that evil and also did not really look the part to me.
So, this live action adaptation was better to me than the Beauty and the Beast one, it seemed more like a movie. That one seemed like some sort of special one would see on ABC to me for some reason. It was a bit tedious at first, but once Will Smith entered the picture as the genie I thought the film livened up a lot and was more enjoyable. There are a few new things added to this as the genie has a love interest, but for the most part, it is essentially the same film with not too much in there to surprise. Next up, the live action Lion King which my wife will probably also want to go to.