Aladdin (2019)

Disney’s Aladdin – released in Thanksgiving of 1992 – is considered by many to be one of Disney’s best films, particularly for the Renaissance period. And how could it not be? With great songs, a likable romantic couple, and an eternally memorable vocal performance by the late Robin Williams as the Genie, this film has earned its status among the Disney classics…which is why I was so confused when they announced that Guy Ritchie was going to be handling the inevitable live-action remake. Now, don’t get me wrong, I love me some Guy Ritchie. I still don’t understand why not enough people saw The Man from U.N.C.L.E. in theaters.  But he’s one of those filmmakers whose style always walks a fine line between enhancing a movie or just outright ruining it. And after the disappointing critical and financial performance of King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I was worried that Aladdin would meet a similar fate. The iffy trailers didn’t do much to dispel my concerns.

But after having finally seen it…I gotta say, I liked it way more than I thought I would. Now, don’t get me wrong, folks. This is not a great film. In fact, on the whole, it comes in at just above “passable”. However, it does have enough twists and turns to set it apart from the original that I found myself really enjoying it just for those twists and turns.

Story; hum along if you know the words. Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is a thief living on the streets of Agrabah with his pet monkey Abu who comes across a princess named Jasmine (Naomi Scott) and they fall in love. Aladdin is then manipulated by Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) to go into the Cave of Wonders to obtain a magical lamp containing the Genie (Will Smith). Aladdin then uses the Genie to go back to Agrabah under the guise of Prince Ali Ababwa so that he may have the opportunity to marry Jasmine as only she can marry a prince. La da da. The rest of the movie happens, we’ve all seen it.

OK, that was kind of dickish on my part since there is more to it than that, but that was my cutesy-poo way of blowing through the plot so we could dive into the nitty gritty.

Let me just say this upfront: I was way too kind in my initial assessment of Disney’s 2017 Beauty and the Beast remake. Now, it’s not necessarily a train wreck, but it’s very much a film that is just content to skate by on goodwill and nostalgia from the original without adding anything different. I bring this up because when watching Aladdin, I was surprised by how much things were changed up not only in characters, but in narrative structure. You get the feeling that underneath the by-the-numbers retread of the original film’s plot, there’s a hilarious, unique remake trying to break through. Most of it comes about during Act II when Aladdin’s disguised as Prince Ali with the Genie disguised as his adviser. It is here when we get some of the film’s best elements, particularly (minor spoiler) a romantic subplot between Genie and a new character named Dalia played by Nasim Pedrad. Unfortunately, though, this is all held back by the film feeling the need to retread the beats of the original, then the film gets kind of lifeless, which is the main flaw holding this film back from being anything truly special.

But when it’s firing on all cylinders, it turns out to be pretty fun! Mena Massoud does well as Aladdin and Nasim Pedrad is fun as Dalia, the new character who serves as handmaiden to Princess Jasmine. Speaking of which, Jasmine turns out to be one of the best characters in the movie. Director Guy Ritchie and co-screenwriter John August have truly managed to modernize this character. In the original, Jasmine was a princess who didn’t want to marry the princes because she wanted to marry for love. After that, she kinda just lost whatever agency her character had. But in this film, she is more of an activist interested in becoming the first female Sultan of Agrabah so that she may help the city.

The other best character in the movie is Will Smith as the Genie. Now, yes, there are times when they try to have in emulate Robin Williams’s gag-a-second, stream of consciousness style of comedy, and it doesn’t always work. But when he’s allowed to put his own spin on the character, he’s is just so endearing and funny.

Unfortunately, though, a big misstep in casting comes from Marwan Kenzari as Jafar. Now, I wasn’t expecting this Jafar to be as over-the-top evil as he was in the original film, but I feel like they went to the other extreme with him to the point where he doesn’t really have a lot of presence. And I wouldn’t mind so much, except once again, the film feels the need to take his character down the same path as the 1992 film, and that path does require a somewhat larger than life character. However, I do like that they added the little detail of him also being a thief from the streets like Aladdin, but it’s not explored too much.

The technical elements get the job done. Guy Ritchie’s style is actually more on display than the trailers would have you think. Not only does Aladdin exude the physicality you would expect from a Guy Ritchie film, but there are a few moments here and there where his nonlinear/flashback or flash-forward style of storytelling does manage to creep through. Now, it doesn’t get as frenetic as the Sherlock Holmes movies, but Ritchie and his editor James Herbert have found a way to sprinkle enough of it in so that fans of his style won’t be too disappointed. However, I do almost wish it was more present during the musical numbers, because that would have made for some unique song sequences.

Speaking of which, the music is actually very good here. Alan Menken’s score has a decidedly more Middle Eastern vibe to it than it originally did, and the orchestrations reflect that vibe with a more percussive beat accompanying most of the songs. The best of the bunch is a new song that Benj Pasek and Justin Paul – late of La La Land and The Greatest Showman – have written for Jasmine called “Speechless”, and Naomi Scott does a great job performing it.

So, bottom line: a great film? Not even close. Again, it’s held back primarily by the unspoken law that all Disney remakes must adhere to the dramatic beats of their original counterparts, no matter how counter-intuitive. However, I feel that unlike Beauty and the Beast, there are enough new things in here to sink your teeth into that you can forgive the stuff you’ve already seen before.

And on the metric of these Disney live-action remakes with Pete’s Dragon on the positive end and Beauty and the Beast on the negative end, I’d say this is smack dab in the middle, leaning towards Pete’s Dragon. So, go see it. You’ll probably enjoy it.