A Needless Half and Half Venture...

Rating: 5/10 (23 February 2020)

A prime reason for why I saw this movie was because, despite being aware of its mixed reputation and anticipating that it likely wouldn't be great, I wanted to have my own personal opinion on it. But, I'm not going to sugarcoat it, as I anticipated this was a so-so film at the most.
Before I start my berating of this movie, I'd like to start with the surprising positives that I found.
Similar to a great many others, I found myself unexpectedly pleased with the performances of Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen as Timon and Pumbaa. The same with Keegan-Michael Key and Eric Andre as Kamari and Azizi, might I add. Out of all the performers, they not only delivered the best comedic-timings, but they gave their characters outstanding life, depth, and personality.
Also, minus the characters not having facial expressions at the most, the special effects used with the animals and landscapes were quite impressive. They looked extremely realistic, that's for sure.
And as always, Hans Zimmer never ceased to amaze me when it came to making a magnificent musical score. He pretty much kept it at the same kind of level as that of the animated film, of course. But, he didn't keep himself from being creative and really throwing himself into composing for this film either, which was great.
However, like I already said, the film wasn't without its Achilles Heels.
With the exceptions of Eichner, Rogen, Key, and Andre, the performers were hardly able to bring ANY charm or life to their characters. Everyone sounded like they were a lot more bored than having a good time, and the fact that the characters were peppered by obviously recycled or creatively uninspired dialogue certainly didn't help any. At least Chiwetel Ejiofer was TRYING to make a good impression as Scar, because he definitely brought something interesting and unique to the role.
As I already commented, I enjoyed how Hans Zimmer was able to help his music feel inspired and creative. But, the film's musical numbers, apart from the rather short but fresh take of "Be Prepared", were the exact opposite of the words I mentioned. Unlike the highly renowned animated version, the songs hardly held the spark that made them so pleasurable in the original, and the limitations of photorealistic imagery compared to hand-drawn and computer animation appeared to be making themselves apparent thanks to the animals just walking or running around as they sang instead of dancing, which made them far from lively.
My biggest gripe, though, comes from the direction by Jon Favreau and the screenplay by Jeff Nathanson. Before I saw this movie via the free cartoon website I used, I was willing to give it the benefit of the doubt because of being a fan of many of Favreau's movies and Nathanson's work in "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales". In spite of this, though, I found that they were sadly unable to make the film worth something. It seemed like their creativity was completely restrained by this unnecessary need to be nostalgic, repeating the same story and providing nearly nothing new. The worst part about it was that all of the delight that made the hand-drawn animated version so spectacular...was missing. Everything mainly felt like it was just going through the motions, like it was done by a factory machine instead of people.
Perhaps if Favreau and Nathanson had created an all-out remake of "The Lion King" instead of making a carbon copy of it, this would be something worth seeing more than once.
In the end, "The Lion King (2019)" was mainly a 50/50 venture at the most, and despite the positives I already mentioned, it'll never compare to the sheer awesomeness of the animated film.