Aladdin and the Death Lamp

I must say that I found this 2012 rendering of the Aladdin character in the tale told by writers Joe Morganella, Angela Mancuso and Kevin Commins, and directed by Mario Azzopardi to actually be a rather enjoyable and entertaining movie. Unlike certain newer renderings of Aladdin with dance, song, blue genies and monkeys.

This 2012 movie was aimed for an adult audience, whereas newer movies with Aladdin are aimed at children and youngsters.

The storyline told in "Aladdin and the Death Lamp" was actually captivating from the very beginning, and there was a good pacing to the story. I enjoyed how the events turned out and how director Mario Azzopardi was able to keep me entertained.

The CGI and special effects in "Aladdin and the Death Lamp" turned out to be good, and I really enjoyed the design of the Djinn. I liked how they opted to go for a monstrous design and one that was menacing in appearance alone. Glad there was no blue-tinted bodypaint jobs here.

And this 2012 ""Aladdin and the Death Lamp" was also completely free of dance and song. Plus and plus in my book.

Now, I was for most parts unfamiliar with the recruited actors and actresses that performed in this movie, but I will say that they were actually doing good jobs with their given roles and characters. I was only familiar with Darren Shahlavi (playing Aladdin) and Eugene Clark (playing Khalil).

"Aladdin and the Death Lamp" was fully and wholeheartedly a good adventurous tale if you enjoy a bit of fantasy, magic and superstition. I was thoroughly enjoying this movie, and I can warmly recommend that you take the time to sit down and watch it, if you have the chance.

SUUUUCKED ASSS. EVERYTHING WAS TERRIBLE. There was nothing ineresting about this movie. It dragged and the acting was just terrible.

this is the worst film I've ever seen so bad i fell asleep i watched an hour watch felt like a century seriously if you don't want your memory of Aladdin ruined don't watch it 1 out of well nothing else should be an option do not watch really hard to get though its the worst just trust me if you want to look for something else

Let's see..

• Terrible acting? Check.

• Terrible dialogues, story-line and no character development? Check.

• Plot holes and "why did/didn't they do that?"? Check.

• Protagonist (Aladdin) that seems like a secondary character? Check.

• Only one babe and they cover her up until the end moment? Check.

• Awful, AWFUL, CGI? CHECK, CHECK & CHECK.

• Movie takes place in "old times" but feels like it's taking place in modern times? Check.

The modern times bit especially. They could've actually shot this movie in some backward middle-eastern place and it would've still looked more authentic than what they re-created in this movie.

Not to mention, this movie is worse than watching LOTR and wondering why Gandalf never uses his super-awesome power most of the time to banish the Orcs.

I hate a vast majority of the Sci-Fi Channel movies with a passion, but I still watch them because there is something compulsively watchable their awfulness. Aladdin and the Death Lamp as far as Sci-Fi Channel movies go is a bad movie, but it is not a truly terrible one, at least to me. It does have some good things, Eugene Clarke is commanding and his voice has the ability to boom out in the most majestic of ways and Kandyse McClure has a sensual beauty that is at its best in the ending. The opening song set the setting and tone of the film well and the scenery was striking. Conversely, Aladdin and the Death Lamp does suffer from a lot of the general problems that Sci-Fi Channel movies have. The special effects look half-finished and don't mesh well at all within the surroundings, the genie creature is little more than a blurred giant lizard. While I liked the opening song, I do think that generally Aladdin and the Death Lamp could have utilised the incidental/background scoring better and made it more interesting than it was. Again, not terrible, just nothing special at the same time. At least the costumes have some authenticity, though some like McClure's are so ridiculously over-sized that they make their bodies/figures unflattering. The dialogue doesn't sound very natural in how it flows either and is so cheesy that it is unintentionally funny, Khalil's warning(s) for example is/are incredibly vague.

On top of that, the story(no matter how seriously or not you're taking it) is a bunch of nonsense, the premise with the lizard genie is a decent one but never expanded on how and why it came to be that way, and there is even a scene where the hero is hitting the genie with his sword and it just looks ridiculous. I wouldn't say it was a dull movie, but it is a rather predictable one and one that has a lot of unintentional humour, and I was also struck by how little children were in the orphanage and how lame the hiding-place of the genie was. The characters are too bland or obnoxious to really care for them, and you never learn that much about them. The lizard genie had potential, but nothing is done with it. Khalil was the only one that came close to being remotely likable. Aside from Clarke and to a lesser extent McClure, the acting is really stiff. Some like Darren Shahlavi are too serious and over-earnest and give the feel that they're way out of their comfort zone(seeing as Shahlavi specialises in martial arts he was definitely out of his depth here). And then there is George Ghali, who overacts so badly that he looks and sounds as though he's in a different movie altogether. Overall, Aladdin and the Death Lamp(strange title don't you think?) is bad, but not enough to be bottom-of-the-barrel quality. 4/10 Bethany Cox