Aladdin (2019)

And so, the latest chapter of the live action remakes has come around with ‘Aladdin’, one of Disney’s more popular animated classics. With that comes high expectations, and with the aftermath of the live action remake of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ comes low expectations.

‘Aladdin’ finds our favourite street rat (played this time by Mena Massoud) trying to win the heart of Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott). He finds an old lamp which houses a powerful wish granting Genie (Will Smith). Deciding to use the Genie to help gain the affections of Jasmine, Aladdin must also be wary of the Grand Vizier Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) who seeks to use the Genie for his own nefarious means.

Let’s start off with the Genie, shall we? As mentioned, the Fresh Prince Will Smith himself was cast as the wise-cracking Genie. Smith faced some…criticism for his portrayal of the infamous Genie, originally voiced by Robin Williams; from the original picture showing him looking human, to the CGI blue Will Smith, to comparisons to Williams. So, how did Smith’s actual portrayal come off?

He was alright.

Yeah Smith doesn’t really put a foot wrong with the role. The only issue against him, is that’s he’s not Robin Williams, and that would have been the case regardless of who it was. Williams made the Genie role his own, putting in such a great performance and energy into it. Even Smith admits that Williams left big shoes to fill. So, yeah, Smith gave a good performance, not great, but good. Though I do feel there’s a bit of hypocrisy when Genie says he’s only going to disguise Aladdin as a prince with the rest coming from Aladdin himself, and then proceeds to use his magic to make him dance.

In fact, the role I was more worried about, was Jafar. Jafar is one of my favourite villains in the Disney Classics franchise, occasionally flip flopping for that number one spot with Scar, and I got quite concerned when they changed Jafar from the older, more experienced vizier, to a younger version. In some ways this comes off quite well, as they did it to show the commonality between our hero and villain; saying they’re from similar backgrounds, both had tricks up their sleeves (sleight of hand in particular), both have ambitions to better their lifestyles. Upon saying that, it does seem odd with how far Jafar has bettered his lifestyle, to go from street rat to Grand Vizier in the same amount of time that Aladdin has done bugger all.

Marwan Kenzari meanwhile does bring a sense of foreboding to the role; he does a great job in bringing out Jafar’s sinister side. The problem? He’s so boring to listen to. The film focused so much on making Jafar scheming, war hungry, and evil, that they forgot to give him the charm and humour the original had. Oh yeah! I said war hungry! Throughout the film Jafar is trying to persuade the Sultan (Navid Negahban) to invade a neighbouring country, though it’s never really explained why Jafar wants to go to war. We know very little of this other country nor are we told why Jafar particularly hates them. Well, there’s sort of a reason, but I’ll go over that in the spoiler section. But the main point is that, despite the new film going into Jafar's background more, you kinda know less about him.

Naomi Scott meanwhile does bring her A game with her portrayal of Jasmine, with her performance being the only reason why 2019 Jasmine comes off as a strong character. Mena Massoud’s Aladdin, on the other hand, well, I didn’t like him. To be fair to him, Massoud doesn’t do much wrong, though I do feel some singing and acting could have been better. Largely though, I think it’s just the character and how it’s written. The original Aladdin was memorable and had that certain charm, the 2019 Aladdin…I actually struggle to think of a quote that wasn’t basically done by the original, besides saying “Really?” when Genie magically moves him across the floor…which, come to think about it, for some reason no-one else noticed this happened.

There are two major differences concerning characters though, and that involves Iago (voiced by Alan Tudyk) and Dalia (played by Nasim Pedrad). What’s that? You don’t remember Dalia from the original? Well that’s because she’s a brand-new character, serving as Jasmine’s confidante. Whilst I can only assume her character was created simply because Jasmine is the only female character in the original, she serves nothing to the plot. Seriously, take Dalia out of the film and virtually nothing changes, apart from Aladdin having an easier time to get Jasmine alone.

And that’s why Dalia wasn’t in the original film, as it was to further enhance the fact that Jasmine feels all alone, with only her father and Jafar for company, hence fuelling her need to get out of the palace. Now, they did change Jasmine’s character a little so that she’s thinking more of the people than herself, but that doesn’t change the fact that Dalia adds very little to the film. The only other role she plays is that she’s the Genie’s love interest. Because that was apparently needed. Yes, it’s nice to see, but mostly this romance just feels forced, only in place to provide Genie a happy ending. Because apparently the hope of being freed from a millennium of slavery wasn’t enough.

In fact, the major character change that I didn’t mind was Iago. Going for the realistic approach, we’ve lost the Gilbert Godfrey chatterbox (which is sad), but the new Iago character is done so well that it doesn’t really matter. He’s funny, can show off that maniacal personality, he’s actually better written than most, if not all, of the human characters, and when a CGI parrot is the most convincing character in your film, there’s a problem.

In fact, Iago was probably the most convincing CGI effect in the film. For the most part. Nothing looked real in this film, nothing looked like it was actually in the room. No wonder we didn’t see the blue Genie for the majority of this. Heck, some of the special effects look more cartoon than the cartoon!

But something that is becoming increasingly obvious is that, by sacrificing animation for realism, the newer films are also sacrificing energy and momentum. And nowhere is it more obvious than the songs. Whereas the 1992 version of ‘Prince Ali’ was full of energy, the 2019 version looks slow and lethargic in comparison. ‘A Whole New World’ had the magic carpet doing loop the loops in the original, interactions with the clouds, Jasmine doing the Titanic pose as they flew. In the new one, I think the most that happened was Jasmine making herself a bit taller as she raised herself on her knees. Even ‘Arabian Nights’ was disrupted when partway through the song we stopped at the Cave of Wonders to see Jafar’s servant get eaten.

There is one new song called ‘Speechless’, which is actually pretty damn good. Part one of it was anyway, as it helped explain Jasmine’s character and aims to teach everyone about standing up for yourself and making your voice count. The reprise of ‘Speechless’ however, feels out of place. Don’t get me wrong, it’s all about Jasmine finding the strength to oppose Jafar, but it’s basically two minutes for something which I feel could have been a lot stronger had Jasmine just whispered a line to herself and then giving off a dramatic speech. Instead, she sings the reprise, with the choreography just consisting mostly of walking, and then gives the speech, so it feels like a waste of time as she’s now effectively repeating herself.

I do have an issue with another reprise though, with that being the ‘Prince Ali Reprise’, with my issue being THEY FUCKING CUT IT. The song which Jafar gleefully sang in the original as a means to spite Aladdin and gloat of his superiority, is instead replaced with dull dialogue.

Now, when I first saw this and left the cinema, I didn’t like it. I thought, like the other live action remakes that it was a hollow shell of the original. Reflecting on this through this review…I can see a lot more to it now. Sure, I still prefer the original to the new version and there are things which I feel the original did better (looking at you Jafar), there’s some good aspects to it. Will Smith and Naomi Scott give strong performances and, whilst it can deviate, the story has been updated fairly well.

With that being said, with the forgettable characters being outshone by a CGI parrot, a paint by numbers plot, including a climax which took a huge step backwards from the original film, and some pretty poor CGI, the new ‘Aladdin’ may not be as bad as I thought it would be, but I won’t be rushing out to watch it again any time soon.

And you know what? ‘The Lion King’ is just around the corner, and what could possibly go wrong with that?




Spoiler Section

Jafar’s first wish makes no sense. Admittedly it had been something which, over the years, bothered me with the original, but yeah, Jafar’s initial wish makes no sense. Jafar’s first wish was to be Sultan, but no-one acts like he’s Sultan. Aladdin, Jasmine, and the (actual) Sultan oppose his rule, while in the newer version the guards also turn on him. So, what’s the point in wishing to be Sultan, if no-one is going to follow you? I suppose it ties in with the Genie’s rule that he can’t affect free will and Jafar’s arrogance.

But this then brings me to a point mentioned earlier, regarding Jafar wanting to go to war with a neighboring country. Obviously, this was to show Jafar’s lust for power, to show he wanted to create an empire rather than just rule Agrabah. But if that was the case, why didn’t he just wish to be ruler of the Earth? The original Jafar was content with just Agrabah (at least for the time being), but Jafar seemingly wants to conquer the whole planet. Why didn’t he just wish to be conqueror of the planet?

The thing is, this is an easy fix; don’t have Jafar saying he wants to go to war with a neighboring country. Have Jafar wish to be Sultan, and then show his hunger for more power, show that it didn’t satisfy him and that his original wish was flawed. Otherwise he might as well have just wished to be Supreme Overlord of Earth and save himself the time and effort.

Yesterday (2019)

"Yesterday skips over the cliche and campy to be one of the best films of the summer." "‘Yesterday’ is the Beatles-themed feel-good movie of the summer." "A glowing tribute to The Beatles and their music, this is both a toe-tapping pleasure to watch and a smart, occasionally scathing look at how we get things wrong."

.......Really?

Okay, to be fair, there's plenty of reviews which reflect the bad things of this film as well, but I hadn't looked up any reviews regarding this film. All I had heard, from word of mouth, were good things about it, which was surprising when I first saw the trailers for this. I mean, one person finds he's the only one who knows the Beetles, which gave me the impression that either something wiped the Beetles from existence, or young people nowadays don't know who the Beetles are, which, believe me, isn't that far fetched.

So yes, 'Yesterday' finds wannabe musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) struggling to make it in the music industry. One night during a worldwide power cut, Jack is struck by a bus and admitted to hospital. When he comes to he finds that no-one else remembers the Beetles, and decides to use their music to make a career for himself.

First things first, I really hate this concept. Not the whole "world has forgotten the Beetles" thing, oh no, that's actually interesting. It's the "stealing someone else's work" bit I don't like. It's not like he has a debate with himself whether it's a good thing or not, he spends the evening looking up any references of the music group, then decides to use their music.

That being said, Himesh Patel does a decent job with the role, as well as being a good performer, not really putting a foot wrong. Meanwhile it's always great to watch Lily James (as Ellie Appleton), though she is underused, which is probably because they cut out a love rival which makes some of her actions a bit bizarre. Kate McKinnon meanwhile provides a brilliant performance as the "evil" agent who tempts Jack with success, with some...comments on the music business.

And then there's Ed fucking Sheeran.

Oh boy I did not like him. You know, he's a good musician with some catchy songs, but...he's not the best actor let's say. His performance on 'Game of Thrones' felt out of place and, bizarrely, he feels out of place here. He just seemingly pops up out of nowhere, having saw Jack perform on local television. Even more weirdly, they seem to try and build up his appearance, with his face being obscured by a fancy glass design, this is despite the fact that he was named about five minutes beforehand. The only real decent thing, was watching him having his spirit broken when Jack's "new" song beat Sheeran's new song. Then they went to the other extreme by saying Ed Sheeran was just warming up the world for Jack, effectively saying Ed Sheeran is the greatest musician of our generation.

Really?

I mean, admittedly I can't think of many other musicians who would be better suited for the title. Adele? Taylor Swift? Sam Smith?....Justin Bieber I don't know! It certainly seems like they put in Ed Sheeran's contract "we will name you the greatest musician of our time in exchange for breaking you"

And that actually raises an issue with the film. It's not that the Beetles are wiped from everyone's memories, the timeline has actually been changed. Oh yeah! They do still exist, they just never formed the Beetles. And because of that, that should mean the entire landscape of the music industry should be completely different to what we know now. The Beetles are widely considered the most influential band of all time, so if they never existed, the music industry shouldn't be the same. There should be a much wider impact to removing the Beetles from history.

Speaking of which, by removing the Beetles from history, and then trying to use their songs to kick start your music career, it raises the question of whether the Beetles would actually be successful in today's era. The film sort of touches on this, both in a good and bad way. It praises the Beetles by, as mentioned earlier, saying their songs are vastly superior to Ed "greatest musician of the modern era" Sheeran's, and having people stunned into silence by their songs, but then suggests that their songs are dated, like "Hey Jude" being changed to "Hey dude" due to Jude sounding old, or the names of Beetles' album covers being ridiculed. With the songs originally being released in the 1960s/70s, people can understand the subject matter of the songs. Having them "originally" released in 2019 raises a serious doubt about how successful they would be.

So, to be fair, there isn't anything inherently wrong with the film. It's well acted and the songs are well performed, while the film has an interesting premise. So, why didn't I particularly like it? Well, in all honesty, it's because of a number of issues. I've already touched upon how they treated the Beetles legacy, in particular how Jack basically steals someone else's work to further his own career.

As mentioned earlier, Kate McKinnon's character, Debra Hammer, is a character designed to tempt Jack by promising him success. So it seemed like the film was going to lean towards Jack having fame, success and/or money go to his head, and we've already seen that done a hundred times. 'Rocky III', 'Citizen Kane', 'The Candidate', 'Dead Rising 2: Off The Record'

Hell, it's been done in 'The Lorax'!

But 'Yesterday' is so focused on making Jack likable, they never go all the way. Jack is always hovering on the edge, never really making him become egocentric, but not really debating enough whether he should come clean, therefore it doesn't seem he go through any lessons.

There is one other thing I want to touch upon, but it's basically a spoiler so I'll leave it for the spoiler section.

So, whilst there isn't anything really wrong with the film, it's largely a waste of time. The acting and performances are good, but with a cliche script not really knowing what it wants to do it fails to capture the attention of the audience. It has clever ideas but never fully explains them or go all the way with them, so it's an unsatisfying payoff. And for a film that, primarily for the audience, is supposed to celebrate one of the best bands of all time, it doesn't really do that.

In all honesty, there's not really much that the film offers, there's no real reason why it exists. It's just a karaoke film; someone who can sing really well singing covers of another band's music, for which, again, there's a hundred films like that as well. 'Sing', 'Rocketman', 'Bohemian Rhapsody', any of the 'High School Musicals'. You can get the exact same experience by looking up The Beetles on Youtube, minus the story. If you enjoyed the film, good for you, but I can't see why this film would be considered anything other than background noise.




Spoiler Section

Nothing of consequence happens to Jack. Two people reveal they also remember the Beetles, but rather than tell anyone, they just tell Jack they're happy that the Beetles songs continue to exist, thanks to Jack. So, they could have been cut from the film and nothing would have changed. And then! Jack goes to an Ed Sheeran concert to reveal that he didn't write the songs...but only after he performs again. If he was truly repentant he would surely just tell everyone rather than have one last performance for his ego.

And then! He finally reveals that he didn't write any of the Beetles songs, and that he tricked everyone. He stole other people's work, he plagerised another band's work, he's a fraud, a liar, a thief. But he's in love with Lily James so no-one but Kate McKinnon cares! On top of that, since the Beetles have been wiped from the timeline, no-one knows who Jack plagerised, therefore he gets no punishment! The only thing that happens is that his music career is tanked, but that's a self inflicted wound, Jack knew what he was doing.

So yeah, I wanted to put this into the main conclusion above, but as it goes over the ending, it was a spoiler.