So, The basic plot of Aladdin is boy meets girl and finds a magical genie to help him become a prince and capture her heart, only to later find none of that was necessary. A great story. Disney's animated Aladdin from the 90's was also great, and gives this remake something to live up to and be compared to, and the movie fairly closely follows the animation, making a direct comparison tempting.

The very first scene is at the cave of wonders where the genie's lamp is, and shows the evil vizier Jafar sending a man to his death trying to obtain the lamp, and intimating he wasn't the first. A somber and effective view into Jafar's character.

Next, Aladdin and Princess Jasmine meet in a bazaar where an undercover Princess Jasmine gives bread to a couple of hungry kids, and ends up being saved from the vendor by Aladdin. It's sanitized from the original where the vendor was going to chop her hand off with a sword. Here, you figure he's going to yell at her and call the cops, but even without the menace it was still a fun scene, with a lot of acrobatics. They get away, and Aladdin takes her to his hideout/house. I did NOT like Aladdin's secret staircase leading to his house, as he didn't show any other signs of mechanical competency to build something like that and it just seemed really out of place and character. Would the movie have lost anything if he went up a normal broken staircase? No.

Aladdin gets captured by the evil vizier Jafar and is convinced to get the lamp from the cave. This is the first serious disappointment for me. The cave of wonders is supposed to have untold wealth that tempts people to pick it up - and get trapped forever. I was expecting to see a gold and jewel extravaganza, but what was there looked more like the cave of a dirty troll who had some wealth from his victims, but not caring about it, just left what few valuable pieces he had carelessly scattered around on the rocks. The cave was mostly rocks with a few baubles scattered around, and darkness. That was the cave of wonders. It was NOT tempting in the least! If somehow I ended up in there, I'd be looking for the exit before looking at the treasure, and that's NOT wondrous. When Tolkien wrote about Smaug's treasure he conveyed in words a sight so overpowering it would take your breath away and leave you mesmerized by the sight of it. Was any of that here? No. What a letdown. The only highlight was Aladdin's monkey, Abu, who throughout the show did what a well-meaning monkey might do, some times helping, some times creating problems. Good job, monkey.

Will Smith plays the genie, and I suppose he did o.k. Robin Williams was the voice of the original genie, and his manic/annoying personality fit perfectly into the role of the genie. Smith seems flat in comparison. Would I have liked his portrayal if I had never seen the animation? No, probably not. It's the same as with the cave, it's as if someone turned the lights down and gave a 50% performance. The songs were the same, it just wasn't that captivating.

Ali's procession scene into town. Another scene that should be majestic. It started off REALLY raising my hopes with an excellent scene of the ground shaking in the palace - from the size of Aladdin's entourage. You see that and think, "this is going to be neat"! It wasn't, so much though, and in hindsight I'd bet it's really that the director really wasn't the right one for a scene like this. Aladdin, who has always felt insignificant is now the center of attention on a colossal stage. He has dancers and soldiers, elephants and peacocks. He has chests of wealth to throw out to the crowds, and everyone's admiration, and he plays it... shyly. Yes, we know that's not who he really is, but we should see him pretending, and reveling in the being someone he aspires to be, and we just don't. It's sad.

I did like the magic carpet scene with Jasmine and Aladdin, they kept the magic in that!

Jafar. Poor Jafar. He could have been like this:



But he wasn't. He is a man of many talents, in the movie having gone from being a street rat like Aladdin (complete with pickpocket skills) to becoming a real magic user, to becoming the vizier for the kingdom. By his resume you'd think he'd come across as masterful, but is actually portrayed more like Snidely Whiplash. He wanted to become sultan as well, which itself fits with his character of wanting to be #1 in everything, and he even says if you aren't #1, you're nobody. Well and good, but then they also show him pushing the sultan to start wars with his allies, etc., and you end up thinking, "why does Jafar care about making Agraba an expansionist nation? How does that help *him*? It doesn't, and no good reason for Jafar's desire to have Jasmine's father attack everyone is ever given. I suppose the only reason would be if he's truly a patriot, in a sense, and is worried about the future of his country if they don't attack their neighbors. LOL, you might wonder why I'm bringing in regional politics. The film seemed to try and go there, with Jafar using the genie's magic to become sultan, and Jasmine convincing the guard who was loyal to the sultan not to obey him and instead to place his loyalty to "her people" and not to the sultan. In America's political climate today you couldn't help wondering if Jafar was supposed to be an allegorical reference to Trump. It lessened the movie, IMO, as fairy tales should be timeless.

I didn't know what they were trying to do with Princess Jasmine. She wanted to be sultan herself, and help "her people" as she said to the guard. What other instances do we see of her helping her people? The only time we know she's even met them was in the beginning when she snuck out of the palace dressed as a commoner, and was so clueless about the lives of the people she unwittingly stole from a merchant. Then she ran away without paying, rather than say, giving him a gem or something, so I guess thievery from "her people" is o.k.? She also got a new song that was something like "don't silence me" after Jafar tells her she should be seen and not heard. We can understand why that would make her angry, but otoh, we aren't given any indication that she is actually qualified to BE sultan. What has she done, or what does she know that would want to make us listen to her? We aren't shown her doing something in the civil government or military, we know she doesn't know anything about life outside the palace, why, exactly would *anyone* elect someone like her to be sultan? She was born in to it, that's why. She didn't *earn* anything herself, but should become the nation's leader because of who her parents were. Great role model for girls there. It's no wonder the children of the Hollywood celebs feel put upon in the college admissions scandal: they are rich, why should they have to do something as declasse as actually *earning* their slot in college? LOL, I don't know why this bothers me so much, really. I don't have a problem with girls wanting to be princesses. But if you want to be a *leader*, you should be worthy of your position. Eh, maybe I do know why it bothers me.And you know, we're all adults here. A movie about an ancient Arabic culture doesn't HAVE to be p.c. in everything, does it? Suddenly the people are going to accept a female sultan? Eh, I can see it if they made her be a Jean d'Arc type character, but she just didn't seem strong enough to pull it off, even if it was decreed. Better to make Aladdin sultan and her be the queen. She could rule things as much as she wanted as queen, and still make it seem within the realm of possibility.

Eh, it's an o.k. movie, but if you don't mind animation, I'd watch that version instead.

 

LOL! It sort of grew in the telling. I've realized the more I like a movie the shorter the review as I don't want to give anything away that might spoil it for someone else, so bad movies tend to be more verbose.

OTOH, Aladdin wasn't a *bad* movie, but at the end I just left feeling vaguely dissatisfied, like it could have been something more. I suppose trying to explain why to myself ended up becoming the longest review of all.