My Review of Aladdin (2019)

Written by John August & Guy Ritchie
Directed by Guy Ritchie

Aladdin: "Hey, can you make me a prince?"
Genie: "There's a lot of gray area in "make me a prince". I can just... make you a prince."

We all know the story. We've seen the 1992 animated movie, it's two sequels, animated series and maybe the Broadway/West End production if we're lucky and with Disney having mixed success with their live action reboots of their animated classics, this could've gone either way.

For a lot of people, director Guy Ritchie seemed like an odd choice in terms of directors and with various controversies over extras being spray tanned, casting choices and memes inspired by the initial looks for the Genie, could this reboot been a total disaster area? Yes of course. Is it one? Surprisingly no, but there's no denying that there are some things that don't initially work in it's favour.

If you were hoping for a slavish reboot, then that's the first disappointment. There are a lot of noticeable changes from the animated movie and while some are good additions, there's a good few of them that are not if we're being honest. I get that Ritchie wanted his own stamp but some scenes that I loved in the animated movie are not included here, including some scenes between our titular hero (Mena Massoud) and the villain of the piece, Jafar (Marwan Kenzari).

Jafar is definitely the most divisive part of this movie. There's no getting away from the fact that Kenzari is a lot more attractive compared to Jafar's animated counterpart but the biggest gripe I had here that while the actor puts in a decent performance, there's a surprising lack of menace and camp theatricality that made Jafar in the 1992 movie such an iconic foe.

Jafar's backstory isn't widely different here, except for the movie's attempts to throw in some political commentary as the evil Vizier tried to manipulate the Sultan (Navid Negahban) into starting a war with another state as well as his own issues of being seen as second best. There's an attempt to give Jafar some depth but it doesn't quite succeed and even some of his antagonistic scenes with Aladdin and Jasmine (Naomi Scott) aren't as potent as they were in the original movie. The biggest disappointment is the lack of dynamic Jafar also had with Iago (Alan Tudyk) in this movie with the latter having nowhere near as much presence as before.

Then there's the Genie himself. I wasn't initially keen on Will Smith's casting and admittedly, it took a while for him to really get his groove as the most powerful being of the piece. Saying that, while Smith doesn't surpass Robin Williams iconic take on the blue skinned jinn, he does get better as the movie progresses. We even get a romance plot for the Genie as he fell for Jasmine's amusing handmaiden Dalia (Nasim Pedrad).

Now moving on to our leading two actors - both Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott were perfect choices for both Aladdin and Jasmine. Both radiate convincing chemistry together and work just as well as individual characters. Some of the positive changes was how Ritchie altered their original meeting and scenes where Aladdin was Prince Ali trying to woo Jasmine and they're changes that actually strengthen the connection formed with the pairing.

The A Whole New World scene was beautifully recreated and the subplot with Jasmine having political aspirations of her own (which are fulfilled when she became Sultan at the end of the movie) might generate some complaints but I actually thought they fit the character rather well while Aladdin's own earnestness about his poor man status was nicely handled too. Regardless of how this movie performs, I think it's a safe bet to assume that we'll see a lot more of Mena and Naomi in future high profile productions.

- Despite the negative reception to his casting, Billy Magnuessen was actually fairly entertaining as the briefly seen and slightly oafish Prince Anders. The palace guard Hazim (Numan Acar) also had some nice characterisation compared to Raoul in the original movie.
- Jafar's Genie look wasn't very impressive but maybe making Marwan Kenzari looking red wouldn't have worked. There's a reason we had the Genie look human for most of his screen time.
- Abu, Raja and the Magic Carpet thankfully fared a bit better than Iago did in this movie. I didn't like the giant Iago instead of snake Jafar. I wonder why so many of the noted distress moments were written out of the movie.
- Loved the use of the Bollywood dancing during the Harvest scenes at the party and the use of bright colours throughout the movie was great.
- Frank Welker is the only actor from the original movie to have three roles here as he voiced Abu, Raja and the Cave of Wonders.
- Standout music: The obvious highlights include A Whole New World, One Jump Ahead, Prince Ali, Friend Like Me, Arabian Nights and Jasmine's new solo, Speechless. Disappointed that Jafar's Prince Ali (Reprise) was omitted from the movie.

Aladdin won't win the same acclaim that it's original movie generated and while some of the disappointments were hard to ignore, this was a somewhat better live action version than expected. Both Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott carry the movie well, there are some gorgeous visuals (even if Ritchie is too fond of slow mo at times) and thankfully the musical numbers do work well enough on the big screen for a second time.

Rating: 7 out of 10