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Will Smith and Mena Massoud restage Disney's Aladdin beat for beat. Why? |
Director: Guy Ritchie
Cast: Will Smith (Genie), Mena Massoud (Aladdin), Naomi
Scott (Princess Jasmine), Marwan Kenzari (Jafar), Navid Negahban (The Sultan),
Nasim Pedrad (Dalia), Billy Magnussen (Prince Anders), Numan Acar (Hakim), Alan
Tudyk (Iago)
Disney’s passion for converting their vast animation back
catalogue into life-action cash registers continues with Aladdin. And it won’t stop after this film blockbustered its way to
a huge international cash haul. Why did it do so well? Probably because it
reassuringly offers you exactly the same
film as the animated original, bar a few extra sub plots to beef up the
runtime. I mean this. This is the same film almost completely as the first one,
but without Robin Williams. Which is a bit like saying it’s a Shakespeare
remake without the language.
Anyway, everyone knows the story. Evil Jafar (Marwan
Kenzari) wants the powerful lamp, it’s trapped in the Cave of Wonders and only
“a diamond in the rough” can get it out. Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is that
diamond, and wouldn’t you know he’s in prison after sneaking into the palace to
meet Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) with whom he has unknowingly fallen in love
during her visit incognito onto the streets of Agrabah. Aladdin gets the lamp,
but events mean he’s the guy who rubs it and gets the three wishes (and the
friendship) of the Genie (Will Smith, using every inch of his personality to
replace Robin Williams).
Do people only see these films because they know exactly
what they are going to get? Do the directors only make these films under tight
instruction to deviate as little as possible from the animated original? What
is there creatively in this sort of karaoke, where the biggest praise seems to
be “it’s just like the cartoon”? I mean why not just watch the cartoon? As is
invariably the case, it’s got far more wit, invention and energy. And it’s half
an hour shorter.
This is one of the biggest photocopies I think they’ve done
so far. I sat in the cinema genuinely puzzled and dumbfounded as to why this
film exists. For much of the first hour, all the lines, the beats, the songs,
some of the shots, much of the physical business – it was all the same. All of
it.
It does have some new bits and pieces. Jasmine has been
given a decent plotline about her dream of becoming the new Sultan being
constantly restricted by her father not being able to imagine a girl ruling (she even gets a couple of
new songs, which are decent in themselves but so tonally different to the rest
of the film they feel crow-barred in). Jasmine also has a new handmaid who can
serve as a love interest of the Genie. Iago the parrot has much of his scheming
moved over to Jafar (who is made an expert pickpocket), while the film walks a
confusing line between making Iago more sentient than a normal parrot, but less
so than a human being. The ending has been tweaked into a chase around the
streets of Agrabah to grab the lamp. But otherwise it’s basically all the same.
Guy Ritchie stamps no personality on it at all, but then
that’s not what he’s been hired for. Instead he mounts the whole thing with a
brash Broadway confidence. In fact that’s what the whole film feels like, a
massive Broadway extravaganza that plays off the nostalgia felt towards the
original by parents of the kids seeing this film. Perhaps that’s why so much is
shot-for-shot the same, but at least I guess you can commend his attention to
detail.
Casting wise, Naomi Scott is good as Jasmine (given by far
and away the most new stuff to do compared to anyone else) and Mena Massoud
does a decent job as Aladdin, although the character is as much of a bland
pretty boy as he was in the original. Nasim Pedred has some very entertaining
moments as the handmaid who attracts the Genie’s eye and supplies some good
additional comic relief.
The real thing you want to know though is whether Will Smith
is any good as the Genie. The part has been remixed for Will Smith’s skills and
style as an actor (the songs have a notable different beat to them), and Smith
plays it with a sense of comfy street cool, the fresh prince of the lamp. He
does his absolute best here, and his charm and comic timing work as well as
ever. But you watch him carefully recreate moments from the original that were
flashes of Robin Williams improvisational brilliance, and your heart sinks. He never
escapes from the shadow of that master of improvisation. And little moments
here and there don’t stop you thinking “I bet if they could have digitally
recreated Robin Williams they would have put him in here as well”.
That’s the whole film though. Never quite enough to justify
its existence. Its big, it’s pretty, it’s got some lovely song and dance bits
in it, it’s all jolly good fun, there is nothing wrong with it – but it’s
never, ever, ever anything more than a straight remake of a tighter, funnier,
smarter film. Why does it exist? To make Disney money. And on that score it’s a
huge success. And it means this is never, ever, ever going to stop.
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