Aladdin

This is a lovely film, colourful and full of life. I enjoyed the animated one and I equally love this one. You don't need to compare live to animation, just enjoy the ride.

Well worth watching.

Having not previously seen the Disney-animated version of Aladdin-just choice clips usually featuring the Robin Williams-voiced Genie-I do understand this Disney-live-action version is mostly the same sequence of events with the same songs with one addition. So on that note, I very much enjoyed this with my movie theatre-working friend. Will Smith is amusing enough as the Genie now and when the more dramatic scenes come, I was touched enough by the story, characters, and the actors playing them. And those songs are, of course, as awesome as ever! So on that note, I recommend this version of Aladdin.

When it comes to visuals, through out the movie was just... beautiful- the clothes, culture and architecture. Will Smith's Genie was unexpectedly good and created his OWN version which is great! As for the rest of the major characters? Well...

Jaafar was a bit of a let down from the beginning. Not menacing enough on the outside. Yet still cunning in some ways. Can't say much about his parrot... Jasmine's dad was disappointingly boring (prefer the bubbly albeit blur cartoony-version). Jasmine herself was alright (neither great nor terrible). The "feminist" like scenes were like an unecessary extra and a bit annoying to watch (don't ask me why). Abu (monkey) was cute. He was captured nicely. And lastly Aladdin? For a break through actor, he actually did a good job portraying Aladdin. EXCEPT his relationship with Jasmine...

..And THAT'S where the "magic" is missing. The core lovey-dovey magic thats hard to explain except through emotions. I feel it's one of the major things that makes Disney's Aladdin.. "ALADDIN"! But I felt nothing from the "Whole New World" scene. No chemistry between the two "lovers". Even in other scenes... This is similarly felt between Aladdin & Genie. Particularly towards the end. The lack of that "core" emotion is so disappointing that I couldn't enjoy the movie as a whole. It just felt more on how it looked rather how it SHOULD feel. I mean this is Aladdin! Where's the magic?

I honestly didn't know what I was going into and it was such a delightful surprise! It really exceeded my expectations and I had fun during the whole movie. Critics are really being harsh and I can't believe that beauty and the beast was more critically praised. The movie was so bland and boring while this one has so much energy and life to it. The characters had amazing chemistry with each other and the lines were delivered smoothly. The two things I was worried about that subsided as soon as the movie started are: 1- Jafar's character: Marwan tries his best to make but the material he's given isn't strong enough. I wish they developed his character more. However, I didn't mind the change they did it with his character as it fits more with this version. 2- Cultural representation: The trailers made the movie look like a production from bollywood. Not hating on the Indian culture, but it really annoyed me as Arab to see a Middle Eastern/Arabic folk tale that we all know long before Disney introduced it to the world to be represented in a fully different culture. Fortunately, the movie looks and feels way more Arabian such Arabic writings here and there, hearing some people speaking Arabic briefly, the names and appearance of the people of Agrabah and of course the amazing score! Although there are some slight hints of India/South Asia in the clothing and dancing, but I didn't mind that at all.

I would've give it a 10 if the cinematography was better. This is my only issue with movie as it looked like high budget TV soap opera in some scenes.

Don't miss on this one! You'll have fun.

I was left cringing during each musical sequence due to the blatant over use of autotune. The actors bring no emotion to the story.