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Aladdin (2019) - Live Action movie

Marcus

Consumed By Darkness
I'm worried about a lot of things in this movie being a huuuge fan of the original and such.

One thing I love about Disney movies is the ability to give the animals human characteristics and emotions. Tangled nailed this perfectly with Pascal the chameleon and Max the horse but that's a completely different movie.

Abu wasa central figure in the Animated movie with him being Aladdin's one and only friend and he is, along side genie, a big comic relief character at times. Whilst Disney have gotten live action versions of animals down pretty well with the likes of the Jungle Book and the upcoming lion king I'm worried Abu will just be a regular old monkey in this...

In short, if I don't see Abu wielding a sword. I riot
 

Tashasaurous

Tash for Short
AKA
Sailor Moon, Mini Moon, Hotaru, Cardcaptor Sakura, Meilin, Xion, Kairi, Aqua, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Elena, Misty, May, Dawn, Casey, Fiona, Ellie
The main thing I'm concerned about the Live Action remake is Will Smith as Genie and his version of the film's songs that were in the original animated film, like "You never had a Friend like Me" and "Prince Ali". I mean, Will's a cool actor, but when it comes to singing, it's mostly Rap. And...to me, Disney and Rap do not mix.
 
"How Genie SHOULD look"

9tcEo41.jpg


Imgur source
 

Tashasaurous

Tash for Short
AKA
Sailor Moon, Mini Moon, Hotaru, Cardcaptor Sakura, Meilin, Xion, Kairi, Aqua, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Elena, Misty, May, Dawn, Casey, Fiona, Ellie
I know I'm not gonna see it. I haven't even seen the Live Action remakes of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella or Beauty and the Beast yet, or even Maleficent(which I still think just ruins the prospect of her being the Mistress of All Evil when she turns out to be a good guy in the Live Action film).
 

Kai Schulen

... ... ...▼
AKA
Trainer Red
"How Genie SHOULD look"

9tcEo41.jpg


Imgur source
Shademp, I had a nightmare earlier this week where I was 10 years old (with the Scooby gang, don't ask) and I was in a haunted flesh house that ate lost children, and when I peeled the skin of the walls of the house, it would reveal the remains of said dead lost children and start bleeding everywhere, but the edit on the right

the edit on the right is way more terrifying than that nightmare. :closedmonster:
 

Tashasaurous

Tash for Short
AKA
Sailor Moon, Mini Moon, Hotaru, Cardcaptor Sakura, Meilin, Xion, Kairi, Aqua, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Elena, Misty, May, Dawn, Casey, Fiona, Ellie
I know you were mainly talking to Shademp, Trainer Red, but you poor thing! That's like how bad of a nightmare I had once as a child when I didn't even watch any scary movies and it just came out of nowhere. In my nightmare many years ago which is still fresh on my mind, and I have mentioned it once, but it had a family living in the mid or late fifties style home, and this crazy maid robot was there with a buzz saw arm like a chainsaw, and as though she was making up a recipe, she was slicing up an innocent teenage girl into pieces with blood spilling all over the place. Well, first it started with a deep slice on her arm that almost cut her hand completely off, and then the rest of her went until there was nothing left.

I woke up screaming and crying after that and I was about...maybe seven or eight at the time. But yeah, I agree the edit of the image is terrifying.
 

Channy

Bad Habit
AKA
Ruby Rose, Lucy
People have to stop RobinWilliam-ising Genie and comparing Will Smith. I loved Robin, I love Will, equally and in different ways. They're both very different, iconic personalities and the way Robin gave Genie life, Will is breathing new life back into him. He's hilarious, he's charming and he's every bit the actor Robin was.

Unpopular opinion coming up but: just because someone has passed doesn't put them on some sort of untouchable pedestal. People had the same things to say about Heath Ledger.
 

Lulcielid

Eyes of the Lord
AKA
Lulcy

Text Review said:
At this point we’re just going to have to get used to the idea that these live-action Disney remakes exist and process them as movies apart from some kind of trend or phenomenon. No one wants every review to open with some kind of treatise on the nature of pop-culture, nostalgia, and diminishing returns. Disney is in the business of keeping brands popular and relevant so they can continue merchandising them and this is just another way to do that in the same way as making toys, clothes, games, rides, hotels and sequels. That’s all there is to their strategy.

There latest remake is Aladdin which, unlike the remake of Dumbo released in March, is one of the Disney Classics people generally remember the plot and more than two songs from. There’s very little chance anyone going into this won’t know how everything will play out and the writers don’t pretend otherwise. Styled largely in the stagebound, deliberately artificial, sing-to-the-camera aesthetics of over-the-top Bollywood dance musicals and pop jukebox karaoke sing-offs like Mamma Mia!, Aladdin dashes madly from set piece to set piece with each bit barely held together by brief quiet moments where the characters might as well just turn to the audience and say “That was fun, right? Okay, now let’s get to the next Big Thing we’re either recreating from the original or the next Big Thing we’ve changed because we’re acknowledging it doesn’t really work anymore!”

There actually turns out to be more of the second than you’d think. There’s been a lot written about how the “Remake Cycle” has served a secondary function of letting The Mouse take a mulligan on addressing both the nitpicky narrative issues and thornier social/political problems of their originals in the wake of YouTube nostalgia reviews becoming so wildly popular with Millennials. Given that the original Aladdin famously had jokes made at the expense of Arab and Middle Eastern culture edited out just a year after it’s 1992 release, there’s quite a bit getting toyed with here including depictions of the supporting cast, song lyrics, and a general approach to presentation.

The story is still basically the same. Evil wizard Jafar needs Aladdin, a common street criminal with a heart of gold, to get a magic lamp from a cave so he can take over the city of Agrabah. Aladdin agrees to the plan in hopes of securing the fortune and fame he thinks he needs to impress strong-willed princess Jasmine. Instead he meets a wisecracking wish-granting Genie who helps disguise him as a wealthy suitor. There’s palace intrigue, a magic carpet, a just be yourself message. Look we’ve all seen Aladdin.

The main storyline shake ups involve the palace intrigue business, fleshing out what exactly all the fighting is about and giving Jafar some cursory backstory and motivation beyond just being evil. In this case, he’s an ambitious former thief in his own right who wants to be Sultan so he can remake Agrabah from a peaceful trade kingdom into an aggressive military power with strong borders (SUBTLE!!!). Instead of being angry at being forced to marry because that sounds crummy, Princess Jasmine is mad because doesn’t care about getting married. She’s a politically-minded reformer who wants to ascend to the role of Sultan herself and is obviously the most qualified person in the court to do so, but can’t because of the nation’s sexist traditions. It seems like every remotely politically themed movie subplot will continue to be about the 2016 U.S. presidential election. You might as well get used to it.

This means that the stretch of story where Aladdin is hanging around the court pretending to be Prince Ali is the most changed in this remake. Really it’s the best part of the movie precisely because everyone involved is being more or less allowed to do their own thing and make a new movie instead of bending into the shape of an earlier one. This is especially true for Will Smith’s Genie who is probably the best character in the film when he’s actually allowed to do something original.

The thankfully small number of bits where he’s asked to recreate the rapid-fire sight-gag comedy of the late Robin Williams’ cartoon Genie are about as ill-advised as many had feared. But when Smith is allowed to play a Genie HIS way, as a magical, put-upon but wisecracking life coach, he’s a really terrific character. That’s possibly because he’s just kind of playing the title character from Hitch again and it reminds you how weird it is that they never did a sequel to that film. Either way, the too-brief stretch in the middle where the film turns into a wholly different thing from the original — a kind of a four-way romantic-comedy between Aladdin, Jasmine, Genie and Jasmine’s handmaiden — is easily the most charming part of the script.

Otherwise, the film fails to stand out. Mena Massoud is a particularly bland and forgettable Aladdin while Marwan Kenzari’s Jafar is interestingly conceived on the page but never comes off particularly menacing or intimidating. Guy Ritchie’s direction is more restrained and anti-frenetic than ever. It feels like they might have strapped giant weights to all of his cameras or pumped him full of melatonin before each shoot.

The standout apart from Smith is Naomi Scott, whose turn as Jasmine is probably the walking definition of a breakout star-making role. An astonishing beauty and a hell of a singer, she gets the requisite “new for the soundtrack” belter solo number in the vein of Frozen’s
“Let It Go.” With the reworked plot, Jasmine gets a bit more to do in a third act that surprisingly dials back on the animated version’s action in favor of a mostly dialogue-driven finish.

Aladdin is a pretty average film, existing more as a tribute to the original than as a movie in its own right. Since most people are just going to go to hear the songs and see sort of new variations on their favorite scenes, it will probably deliver. It’s unfortunate that you can see the makings of a different, more interesting movie almost breaking out. But at least it’s not Dumbo.

SCORE: 5

Another reminder that these remakes have much potential when they branch out and add new things and that they are unremarkable when they don't.
 

Makoeyes987

Listen closely, there is meaning in my words.
AKA
Smooth Criminal
It's not as if there aren't other films one could watch.

And that's what it basically boils down to.

Like, this strategy of strip mining past Disney vault classics and refining them into live action films isn't going to stop until it ceases to bring eyes to the screen. As the review says, it's part of life now. Hollywood is in sequel-syndrome and cannot bear to make a film that isn't either a sequel or remake of something that was awesome.

So just stop going to it. Don't see it. Don't give it attention. And just like Tinkerbell... It will die. :mon:
 

ChipNoir

Pro Adventurer
So just got back from watching it. It's...inoffensive.

Pros.
1. Will Smith very much is his own personality. His Genie actually has his own goals, even if it's really just "Oh look, I have mobility after 1,000 years! Party? Flirty? Sure!" and he chews the scenery. Which is needed because the scenery is so plastic and sandy that it kinda needs him to add life to it.

2. The actors playing Jasmine and Aladdin sell their roles perfectly. They're almost fully fleshed out characters.

3. Best CGI animals with personafied human emotions to date.

4. Gorgeous sets when not lingered on too longed.

5. They improve Jasmine's character greatly while still giving her realistic limitations for her situation.

Cons.
1. Will Smith....Please don't ever try to sing again. Just...don't.

2. Everything else not concerned with the three leads is kinda flat. Guy Ritchie just doesn't seem to know how to transfer energy to anything that isn't Aladdin doing parkour or dancing. Some of the sequences almost felt like they were played on fast forward in order to create an artificial energy.

3. Some minor continuity errors, or at least sloppy writing that makes a climax moment not make any sense.

4. Iago and Abu are exceptionally diminished, and given number 2 their scaled down roles hurts the film.

5. Jafar trying to be a "Deep Villain" comes at sacrificing energy.

I keep saying energy because well...this movie kinda lacks it on some levels. It's strangely chill at times. Not boring but...I dunno, I checked out a few times. Not as badly as Beauty & The Beast, but it had some drag moments.

I feel like this cast has a lot of potential for sequels though, and perhaps with a bigger budget (Or at least more than four locations) they could really take things to where this film wanted to go while the chains of the original story were holding it back.

It's not bad. If I have to endure more Disney Live Action movies, this is the highest bar set, maybe perhaps second only to Jungle Book depending on what element you're talking about.
 

Tashasaurous

Tash for Short
AKA
Sailor Moon, Mini Moon, Hotaru, Cardcaptor Sakura, Meilin, Xion, Kairi, Aqua, Tifa, Aerith, Yuffie, Elena, Misty, May, Dawn, Casey, Fiona, Ellie
Will Smith....Please don't ever try to sing again. Just...don't..

I knew him singing in this film was gonna be bad, because casting him as Genie is one of the worst choices ever. He's a cool actor, I'll give him that much. But he's more of a rapper than a singer given his music in the Men in Black music videos to promote the first two films, plus Wild Wild West.

I haven't seen the Remake yet and given your description, I'm not even going to.
 

ChipNoir

Pro Adventurer
I knew him singing in this film was gonna be bad, because casting him as Genie is one of the worst choices ever. He's a cool actor, I'll give him that much. But he's more of a rapper than a singer given his music in the Men in Black music videos to promote the first two films, plus Wild Wild West.

I haven't seen the Remake yet and given your description, I'm not even going to.

Will is still this movie's biggest saving grace though. He absolutely owns the role of Genie.
 
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