Aladdin

Starring: Naomi Scott, Mena Massoud, Will Smith, Marwan Kenzari, Navid Negahban, Billy Magnussen, Nasim Pedrad

Director: Guy Ritchie

Following the success of Good Will Hunting, indie auteur Gus Van Sant could have gotten pretty much any project greenlit. He chose to remake Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. Not only using the same script, but shooting more-or-less the same shots. He viewed it less as the latest Gus Van Sant movie and more as an experiment inquiring into the “DNA” of film-making. If something ineffable between the frames defines a film-maker’s genius, differentiating a masterpiece from a reconstruction. I have never met anyone who prefers Van Sant’s Psycho. It is certainly not with such lofty goals that Disney has begun remaking its classic animated films in live action, but rather cold logical cash grabs. Nostalgia is big business right now. Now I enjoyed Bill Condon’s Beauty and the Beast and Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book. I thought they brought no particular innovation to the stories, but they hit all the same beats as the animated films so… sure, why not. They weren’t essential. They were cover songs. I never saw Kenneth Branagh’s Cinderella or Tim Burton’s Dumbo but I imagine they are largely similar (though I question how in Dumbo, since the source material is a bit thin). So right before we start, I’ll let you know: I have a low bar.

In case you’ve been trapped in the Cave of Wonders since before 1992, a brief summary. Aladdin (Mena Massoud) is a thief in the city of Agrabah who falls in love with the princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott, a British actress doing an American accent to play a Middle Eastern character). The sinister royal vizier Jafar (Marwan Kenzari) tricks Aladdin into fetching a magic lamp for him but through a twist of fate Aladdin winds up with the lamp and its accompanying genie (Will Smith). Now with three wishes at his disposal, Aladdin seeks to win the heart of a princess who must be wed to a prince. Rounding out the cast are Navid Negahban as Jasmine’s father the Sultan, Frank Welker reprising his multiple roles from the animated version (Abu the monkey, Raja the tiger, and the Cave of Wonders), SNL’s Nasim Pedrad as Jasmine’s handmaiden Dalia, Alan Tudyk as a more unsettling croaky version of the parrot Iago, and Birth of the Dragon token white guy Billy Magnussen as token white guy Prince Anders. Tokenism isn’t even Magnussen’s biggest problem, he has so little to do besides a goofy pseudo-Scandinavian accent. I am trying so hard not to compare this to the 1992 film but the storytelling economy of having one undesirable prince storming out accomplishes in 10 seconds what this movie wastes minutes on. He’s a talented comic actor, as evident from Game Night and Ingrid Goes West, so maybe don’t waste his time just to make sure the movie isn’t one hundred percent people of color. (I’m pretty sure this review has now put more thought into his role in the movie than the movie itself did.)

So now time to address the elephant in the room, and I don’t mean Abu in the “Prince Ali” musical number. One can avoid comparisons only to a certain extent. The 1992 film succeeded largely on the back of the late comic genius Robin Williams. He improvised hours of material for a movie that ended up 90 minutes, and what made it into the movie was sheer comic gold. The directors built the movie around his fast-paced style. For a character with no feet, there are some enormous shoes to fill. When this project was announced my pick probably would have been James Monroe Iglehart, the actor who played the role on Broadway. He made the role his own and won a Tony for it. But realistically, Disney needs a movie star in the role. Someone with an outsized personality who will bring his own flair without doing a pale imitation of Williams. So who better than the Fresh Prince? His casting has been greeted across the board with skepticism but trust me when I say that he is the beating heart of the movie. He absolutely nails it. He brings heart to the role (multiple Oscar nominee, remember) and the trademark Will Smith humor to the rest of it. He is no singer. The opening number, “Arabian Nights,” is him to pushing his vocals to their somewhat meager limits and, I would guess, with a fair amount of digital assistance. But “Friend Like Me” and “Prince Ali” are talk-singing songs anyway (even when Williams did them) so vocally they’re fine. Not great, but fine. One could get lost in the uncanny valley of his CGI torso, to which his head seems somewhat loosely connected (in fact, a lot of the special effects seem like they could have used some extra time to get right) but for me the performance outpaces any shortcomings of the computer animation.

The biggest disappointment of the film is a guy who is not on camera, but in every frame. (Not only sphinxes have riddles!) Looking back at the kinetic energy of Snatch, the Sherlock Holmes films, and even King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, I would think a musical from director Guy Ritchie would be phenomenal. (One of the best scenes of Rocknrolla is set against a live performance of “Rock’n’roll Queen” by the Subways.) But Aladdin could have been directed by any of the for-hire directors Disney has rotated through before (maybe not Burton). If Guy Ritchie can’t distinguish himself from Kenneth Brannagh or Bill Condon, then my thoughts are that Disney micromanaged all the personality out of his style. Or maybe I’m letting him off the hook. Live action (augmented by computer animation though it may be) does not have the same dynamic qualities as animation but most of Aladdin’s direction feels flat… or even absent. The one highlight, visually speaking, is the “Friend Like Me” musical number which showcased Will Smith’s chops as an entertainer, Mena Massoud’s dance skills, and a vibrant visual energy. Where is that the entire rest of the movie?

It could be my aforementioned low bar but despite the lackluster direction, I did rather enjoy the film. I had fun. Dumbo has shown earlier this year that these live action Disney films are not the box office slam dunks that they were once thought to be and people have been skeptical about Aladdin. I hope that doesn’t damage the Hollywood career of Mena Massoud, who I found engaging in the lead role. Naomi Scott also does well in her brand new and therefore Oscar-qualifying song. (I wouldn’t immediately peg it as a contender but lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul won two years in a row and composer Alan Menken is a living legend.) I feel like people who want to like Aladdin will. I always WANT to like a movie, so it got me. My wife came in with low expectations and found them exceeded so perhaps that is key also. But if you look at all the trailers and say “not for me” you are probably right. It may not be a diamond in the rough, but it’s a decent enough fun time at the movies.

C+ but Will Smith's extra credit bumps it to B-