Not bad but not great

Rating: 5/10 (6 September 2019)

Cast
At first before watching the film I was not fond of the cast at all, however as time passed I thought to be more open to it and see how they actually are in the film before judging. I'm not mad about the cast in terms of appearance. Naomi Scott as Jasmine is a good choice, not perfect in my opinion but still really good. Her acting was very good and convincing, as well as her singing. I really liked how she conveyed emotions in her acting.
Mena Massoud on the other hand, he had decent 'aladdin' looks, again not perfectly accurate to the original aladdin but he was passable. But his acting...oh man, his acting was so mediocre in my opinion. He seemed really stiff at times and I just was not impressed at some especially emotionally critical moments. His singing especially lacked emotions a LOT. You definitely don't have to be the most skilled singer to make a song sound emotional or 'good' in that sense, but he just didn't sound that way at all. He just did not have aladdin's natural charm at all which was a very crucial point.
Will Smith was good as genie I think and his singing wasn't bad at all, so I don't mind that part much. I also liked how in the begin it's actually the genie telling his kids about the tale, that's honestly a nice detail to show more of his life after being genie, which I like.
Marwan Kenzari was NOT a convincing choice for Jafar, he just did not have the dangerous cunning vibe at all. Honestly I don't understand how he was casted as Jafar. I'm not saying his acting was bad though, but I just don't think he was a good choice at all.
Plot
There are a few things to say despite the live action following the original mostly.
First, it bothered me a bit about how Aladdin was introduced in the begin. He did not get enough time before Jasmine showed up and suddenly they're running away together AS he sings the 'One Jump Ahead' song.
I felt like that song was really to introduce Aladdin as a character and show off his personality in a way, but mashing it together like that by making jasmine run with him in that sequence just felt a bit squeezed together and not right? In my opinion if they did that they should have given jasmine a few lines as well and modified the song in a way, to make it fit. That part definitely felt rushed.
Besides that there were other times the plot didn't feel smooth as well. Second thing I want to say is I'm not sure if it's because of the plot or script written, but I just did not feel that Aladdin and Jasmine really had a strong chemistry/attraction? In the original film you can see even from the beginning Aladdin swoons over Jasmine the moment he sees her and throughout the film you see their mutual attraction towards eachother from begin to end, so naturally it just felt right that in the end they got together. But in this remake it just didn't have that. It felt as if they were only acquaintances for a good while of the film but then SUDDENLY they like eachother. It felt a bit forced in a way. I'm not saying it's terrible but I definitely couldn't help but to notice that difference.

Music
I actually like the live action's take on the soundtracks for some songs, but not all. As mentioned earlier I do like Naomi's singing and Jasmine's Speechless is just phenomenal. It's great to see Jasmine get her own song.
Will Smith also did great on some songs, I especially liked Arabian Nights.
Also as mentioned earlier I don't like Mena's singing. I can tell he did try though but it's just nowhere as impressive and charming as Brad's singing, which is to be expected but still, it just lacked emotions. I still think for this reason it would have been better to cast someone with more singing experience.
Other than that I actually do like the re-arrange on 'A Whole New World', it's more modern in a way and it fits the film. It's just really different than the original but it doesn't mean it's bad.
The other tracks were good, I don't have much to say on them.
Visuals
The visuals were GREAT. I actually really loved how the characters are introduced visually at the begin of the film, as the camera moves across Agrabah you see the silhouette of each main character. I honestly liked that part.
CGI is of course great as well. The genie part however must have been tricky to do, I'm not mad about how it looked even if it's not perfect. Some parts did make me think twice a bit but in the end it didn't bother me too much.
The costume designs were beautiful as well. Even if it has a lot of indian influences I really liked the designs especially for Jasmine. Her outfits varied in palettes but it always had turquoise touches in them, staying true to the original Jasmine's color.
Aladdin's prince Ali costume design was perfect as well, I loved how it really looks like the original but only more realistic and more detailed and enhanced, it looked great.
Overall
Overall I'd say it's an ok remake of the original, but I won't be rewatching it anytime soon because I'd much rather just watch the original. I don't understand how a lot of people were hyping so much over it saying it's the best remake ever. Even if the movie had lots of good points it had lots of flaws as well, so it just didn't really have the 'wow' factor for me overall.
It's not a bad film, but it's also not a good film.