One word, "Lifeless"

Rating: 3/10 (21 July 2019)

I'm getting sick of these remakes of classic Disney animated films, they don't have the same charm, creativity or originality as their animated counterparts, a few can be good or even better, Pete's Dragon is a great example, although the original film is technically not animated but it has a animated character in live-action but the live-action 2016 remake is so much better, after the surprisingly great and successful 2016 Jungle Book remake, Jon Favreau decided to direct yet another live-action film based on a animated classic and what is that?.... the Lion King of course, now I really like the original animated film even though it's not flawless with it's big story telling, revolutionary animation, amazing cast and wonderful characters with unforgettable songs and a beautiful score by Hans Zimmer, it's a classic, so will Favreau do something amazing like he did with the Jungle Book?, well I saw it yesterday with a little bit of optimism and.......... wow, this is the most lifeless, empty, emotionless, heartless, pointless and boring remake out there, although I have seen worse but this is so bad so let's talk about it.
You all know the story of the Lion King so let's just get into it (Seriously look it up online it speaks for itself), Jon Favreau who is usually a good choice has completely did the opposite of what he did in the Jungle Book, he's now doing what the 2017 Beauty and Beast did, making this new remake in the same way of the animated film, only with very minor changes and a few things cut out of the movie to make it longer and drag on, when it comes to the classic scenes and song sequences they are ruined with something that was once expressive and fill of personality to something very boring and dull, which is basically what this is film is, it's just the animated film only with no effort and energy along with heart and emotion, it's just as stale and boring as it is, it's tries to be emotional but comes off as laughable and dull, it has a bit of chuckle worthy moments and only one laugh that came from me, but besides that what else can be said about this directing, writing and execution, this is why you don't need to remake it again, along with making classic scenes go on forever, so it shows that Favreau and his team didn't try... like at all.
The visuals are probably the only best thing about the film, the animated film looked a lot better then this but it still looks impressive in a way, it's very beautiful, it looks photorealistic, the animals look like actual animals which is quite impressive also and it have wonderful textures, however as impressive as it looks, it has a massive downfall, as well textured as the characters are, most of the lions look the same and don't really stand out, Timon and Pumbaa look very normal and everyone else look like their animated counterpart in a way, at the same time, the scenery can look dark in lighting and it can be hard to see, most of this is achieved very well in the animated film, but this live-action film has certainly found a way of making the world of Pride Rock look real and beautiful!.
The characters are just like how they are from the animated film... only emotionless, boring and bland, so Simba, Nala, Mufasa, Scar, Zazu, the Hyenas and Rafiki have completely changed and not in a good way, none of them have the charm, personality, heart depth or comedy of their animated counterparts, they are exactly the same but worse, but Timon and Pumbaa were the worst ones, now I liked them in the original animated film, here they are sooo annoying now, Scar is no longer a threat and more boring then ever, the hyenas are unfunny and I can't tell them apart, although with dull, repeated and uninteresting characters, the voice acting makes it slightly better I suppose, I think John Oliver, Seth Rogen, Billy Eichner and John Kani fit their roles extremely well, it's nice that they brought back James Earl Jones but he sounds incredible bored through out this entire film, as for everyone else, they do a decent job, Donald Glover is okay as Simba, Beyoncé is actually half way decent as Nala, Chiwetel Eijofor is time as Scar but is certainly no Jeremy Irons, Eric André, Keegan-Michael Key are the three main Hyenas who are also just okay, point is the voice acting is okay, so how do you recreate great characters again?, well take the life and heart out of them, then using different actors who are mostly doing fine and then you got boring and forgettable characters.
The songs, the score and everything about this music is exactly the same, they are there for people to go "Ohhh I remember that, that was from the original!, I like it" and that's it, nothing else.
Wow..... this remake was just.... pathetic!, do I really need to say why you need to avoid this?, I mean if you are curious to see if it will be good?, then skip it but if you really want to then go ahead but don't expect a good movie, it's exactly what it is, a lifeless, boring, pointless, unfunny, painfully emotionless and has no heart, yes it has nice visuals with okay voice acting and I did get two chuckles and one laugh, but unfortunately that's not enough, this is one remake I don't like at all, sure it's not as terrible as the Nutcracker and the "Bore" Realms, but it's pretty close, I'm now sick of remakes and I think I'll stop watching them and stop giving them money for something pointless, we need originality, not doing the same thing in different visuals!, but no.... they only do it because.... money...
This live-act-...... this animated-..this lifeless remake deserves a 3.2/10.