This movie shouldn't have been greenlit in the first place

Rating: 4/10 (20 July 2019)

I wouldn't necessarily classify this film as "bad" as much as I would misguided. I honestly didn't dislike it as much as I thought it would, though admittedly I went in with very low expectations after having read many reviews.
Its main problem stems from an incongruence that the striving for realism presents against a necessity to convey anthropomorphic emotions that would grant weight and impact to the underlying emotional underpinnings the film requires to be effective, and that animation allowed but that CGI does not, or at best, heavily restricts.
There's simply very little emotional gravitas because the movie is beholden to its realistic approach of live action CGI animals. To be fair, I think Disney walked the line as best they could here, it's just that the combination of these two aspects simply aren't compatible when attempting to portray wildlife in such a realistic manner. In most scenes it's not too noticeable, but in the most crucial it is glaringly conflicting in its explicitness. Mufasa's death fell completely flat because when trying to wake his dead father up, Simba simply looked like a baby cub you'd see at the zoo, with no indication whatsoever he was in distress in his face, with the only way to tell he was sad was through his voice acting and minimalist body language. In the original, you could see the fear, the doubt, the guilt in his eyes. Here there's none of that. Perhaps voice acting would've been enough to compensate, but the voice acting wasn't nearly strong enough. How can you compensate for something that heavy without the ability to see that agony in the face and eyes of the one experiencing it?
This movie felt to me like one that was begging to burst out to greater potential was was constantly reigned in by realistic parameters. It is a prime example of what should be best left untouched. If you want to get the general gist of what this movie is like, look at your cat or dog. Then imagine it attempting to move you in any emotional way through its facial expressions with a sad voice alongside. It's just not there, and what is isn't nearly enough. The film is an absolute technical marvel, which is about the best credit I can lay at its feet. There are other flaws but they are ancillary in relevance compared to this main fault, because they could've easily been overlooked had it not been there.
Ultimately, this juxtaposition of realism vs. the necessity of emotional gravitas, and the former's complete inability to convey the latter due to the manner of it's portrayal, is this film's greatest failing. The pitch should've been shot down by the executives long before it even began production.