Great soundtrack, feminist themes, Will Smith is awesome and a rant on racial discrimination in hollywood

Rating: 7/10 (5 October 2019)

This is my first ever movie review.
I enjoyed Aladdin, as a long-time Disney-fan, albeit not expecting much given my disappointment with Beauty and the Beast and Lion King (the non-cartoon versions released in recent years). This is surprising because of the three, Aladdin (the cartoon) was maybe ranked the third in my books originally.
Here's what Aladdin (2019) has going for it:

Amazing soundtrack (not just the new songs introduced, but the instrumentals) that I'm still listening to now even months after watching!
Will Smith's consistently awesome performance, both as an actor and singer. I was particularly impressed with his ability to carry off these musical numbers with such gusto.

-Naomi Scott (Lemonade Mouth alumnus). I'll share more about this later, but she was beautiful and her vocals really raised the roof in the new song Speechless.
What I maybe didn't like so much was the cheesy feminist themes that were a bit in-your-face. Sure, it brought a new interesting dimension to an oldie but goldie Disney movie, giving it a bit more depth, but it was just a little too explicit for me.
Aladdin is ultimately a story relatable to every girl ever who has ever fallen for a bad boy (who is charming, talented, and ultimately a rascal - given how he behaved selfishly later in the show). It also goes into a story about whether a woman can lead a kingdom as a princess, without a co-prince (a role I feel Aladdin isn't well equipped to play as his talents lie more in street smarts).
But ok, I digress. I suppose what we should take away is more that qualities such as kindness, honesty and respect should always be the most important.
Now, for my elaboration on Naomi. The only thought I had was - Yet another previously undervalued non-White shines again! It brought flashbacks for me to Ariana Grande, Zendaya and now Naomi. Their similarities? They all played extremely "supporting actress" roles to white girls in their previous Disney lives (Lemonade Mouth, Victorious and Shake It Up).
And now, they're like 1,000x more successful than those white leads now (seriously, Bella Thorne)? You go girls. I just feel slightly peeved that their talent wasn't recognized right from the start just because of their race / skin color. What's with the constant need for white leads? I'm Asian and I don't watch shows with Asian leads at all. Does the White majority audience really need to watch a White lead??
Ok, sorry for the rant. Peace out!