10/10 visuals, otherwise this movie is trash

Rating: 6/10 (6 August 2019)

I went into the cinema looking forward to a live action Lion King, with all the memorable moments, with some creative license. What I got was a mess. A very beautiful, but utterly confusing mess. Sequences have been altered to subvert your expectations, actors feel like they're held on a leash- all emotion ripped away for bad one liners and flat acting. With the exception of Beyonce (Nala), who seems to be the only one given the chance to sound genuine - to the point that she's the only one you can hear in "Can You Feel The Love Tonight". Scar by far is mistreated the most, reduced to a snivelling creep with no sass and all pathetic. They even cut in half and changed all the lyrics to "Be Prepared". And of course, the infamous gorge sequence- very short and very meh. It's surprising how much you can chop of the original film and still have it more than 2hrs long.
Very disappointed, Disney can't resist messing with something perfectly good - don't fix of it ain't broke, y'know? Timone and Pumba kinda save the film a little, but even then it's cringey and bizarre.
This film is probably better if you haven't seen the original, otherwise, you'll probably hate this.