Aladdin (2019) - Movie Review

I know I know!  I feel I have NO RIGHT to review this movie for many reasons, I haven't post since like 2008 and look at all the other movies I missed! Black Panther, Infinity Way, Endgame, etc. Believe it or not, I've started on those but never finished and never posted 😅

Oh well, I just saw Aladdin TWICE! Super hype for it so I wanna talk about it! Because I have WORDS.

SPOILERS

But like...come on...

Aladdin is the 2019 live action remake of the 1992 animated classic from Walt Disney Pictures, directed by Guy Ritchie, score by Alan Menken (the king!) and stars Mena Massoud as Aladdin (he's Canadian by the way!) Naomi Scott as Jasmine and Will Smith as the Genie!

 At first when I saw the teaser and the trailers, I was "oh, okay." I wasn't too convinced about Genie. Not Will Smith playing the Genie because there was no doubt in my mind that he wouldn't be amazing, it was the look. 

Being in the VFX field for a little over a year now it's really starting to effect how I look at films and I knew there was something off about the look of the Genie but I didn't know what. I also knew it was just the teaser and not a finished look so like I always said, I'll wait until I see the finished film and oh boy!

He honestly doesn't look that bad and is Smith isn't bad as the Genie either! Honestly he's the best part of the movie! 

I enjoyed his performance so much and I knew I would! Honestly if Robin Williams was still with us I think he was would have enjoyed it as well. Will Smith knew he had an impossible task before him and kudos to him for even rising up to the challenge! He did make it his own and it worked!

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Mena Massound who plays Aladdin worked for me as well. I had never heard of him before so I really liked that they had cast an unknown for the role, well not saying he's unknown but he's not like an Emma Watson or Josh Gad you know. I had wish they done the same for Belle in the Beauty and the Beast but that's another story! 

He sounded great when it was his turn to shine, I mean sing. Honestly, I even think he would be great for Broadway. He relationship between Genie, Abu, and Carpet worked really well and what I really liked in the animated classic so I really enjoyed that. Not too much to say about him other than yeah! I wanna see you in more things now!

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Naomi Scott as Jasmine, 

Oh boy...I feel like I'm get into so much heat for this. I was afraid to say my real feelings about her when people first asked me what I thought about it. But after thinking about and hearing reviews from people I trust, I found that I wasn't the only one.

She was fine as Jasmine. I knew that they were going to make some major changes about the character and I'm glad they did because one, the character from animated classic doesn't really hold up in the world today and the character herself deserved more. 

Some of the changes they made was Jasmine wants to be Sultan and we find out that her mother was killed and owned a neighbouring city near Agrabah. Those changes are well and good along with giving Jasmine her own song called Speechless...

HOWEVER...

And don't get me wrong, the song is all well and good and powerful to be honest BUT! the song is broken up into two. She starts singing it around the beginning when Jafar tells her she will soon learn it's better to be seen and not heard. Perfect time to sing about it. It's doesn't detrack from the film, we knows it's all bout her in this moment, this is her moment. 

But when around the climax of the film and things start heating up. Jafar orders the guards to take her away and for her to remember to be silent. She starts to sing again...and it turns into what some may consider a music video. 

She starts singing, and the guards turn to dust and people are frozen and for the entire song, I thought I was watching something from High School Musical or Glee. It took me right out of the movie and made me think it would have been better as an end credit song or how she should have finished it the first time she sang it. 

I don't mean to be rude and I'm not anti-feminist or anything, I just thought it would have been more effective and fixed the pacing issue if she had just acted, instead of singing and then act. It would have been just as powerful and just as great and fixed and issue with it.

Another thing they did with the character which actually really bothered me, and personally I thought would have or if not had been an even more powerful scene for the character, was when Jasmine and Aladdin are running from the guards and they have to jump from building to building. They count down to jump together and she doesn't jump.

In the animated classic, Jasmine didn't hesitate in a situation similar to this and stated that she's a "fast learning." That was one thing about the animated version that I considered to be strong, independent trait. To me in this version they striped that right from her and not only that, when Jasmine does finally jump she lands right in Aladdin's lap. Cute I guess but she also could have just....landed...

It was those things that made me feel kinda "iffy" about what they did with Jasmine. Naomi can sing though. She's sounded great and was really funny at times.

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NOW my BIGGEST problem, issue, gripe....was Jafar.

What the flying fudge was that?!

One thing that I thought would have been unanimous about the film was how TERRBILE the actor, the character of Jafar was portrayed! He did a terrible job! I'm sorry! But the casting director, the director who thought he was perfect got it SO wrong! I get the version of the animated classic wouldn't work with the changes that they made in this film.

The film was grounded with talks of war, merging, alliances, armies, etc but when you stern away everything that made the character what they were in the classic, sorry no. You did it wrong. Either take that character out completely or call your villain something else because what we got didn't have the essence of what makes Jafar, Jafar. 

In my opinion, he seemed to be in a completely different kind of film. The only part that I found decent was when Aladdin is captured and is brought to him in the desert and they talk about Jasmine, how he was like Aladdin once, a thief, and the lamp. 

They seemed to have a connection there that I thought worked, was going to work well. He and Aladdin had something in common, they both had to steal to survive. And it would have worked out so well if they kept that aspect between them going but in the end it turns out basically like the end of the animated version except for Jafar not turning into a giant Cobra...

What is it with Disney and giving their main baddies the one thing that made them awesome and terrifying in the originals? First Maleficent not turning into a Dragon and now Jafar not turning into a snake...geezzz 😑

Like I stated previously, I've been in the VFX for quite some time now and I pick up things everything now and then. I truly believe that the reason they didn't go all out with Jafar when they should have, he's the main baddie, is because they ran out of money and was wondering where they would could make it less expensive. Not cheap, less expensive. 

Some of the time all he does is make it look like the people who defy him are having a stroke. Or have them floating in the air. He forces Jasmine to marry him which seems like they had that just to make another connection to the classic but it seemed so forced and out of place for this new version of Jafar that I wish they had just skipped that part altogether.

There's so much more but the last thing I'll harp on that I noticed and wish I didn't...was his nails.

Now, I'm not a very girly girly. Unfortunately my nails don't grow long because one, their weak and two I do a lot with my fingers and they always break. The guy who played Jafar nails were SO long! So long for a guy! Like no guys nails should be longer than  the average length for girls/women. WHY DIDN'T THEY CUT THEM?! It's was so incredibly distracting when I noticed. And it's not like all the nails were the same length, they weren't! I'm pretty sure his nails were longer than Jasmine's! That's just...not right!

Siggghhhh....

He really...brought this movie down for me. I rated it 7/10 on IMDB and it's mostly because of him and mostly everything else I stated before.

Despite all I said though, it's good.

It's also visually beautiful, the like production design and world is just beautiful. Also the covers of the original songs I personally liked. If people don't I honestly get that. I really do and in a case like that, thank God you still have original versions. 

Other than all those things, it's solid live action remake. The music, the score yeah you've heard it before but this time with a twist in certain places and its so good.

I'm pretty sure there's even a nod or it's played ever so slightly "Proud of your Boy" that was scraped from the animated classic but it's such a good song! If you haven't heard it, go find it! Listen to it!

I'm sure this movie will put a smile on your face and that's never a bad thing right?

I give this movie 7.5/10 starts and recommend it for sure!



If you've seen it let me know what you think. Did I miss anything? I know I did but a little too lazy too them in now 😅😅




Stay Blessed!