{"id":18365,"date":"2019-05-23T11:52:28","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T18:52:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/?p=18365"},"modified":"2019-05-23T11:52:28","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T18:52:28","slug":"aladdin-looks-exceptional-but-has-some-dry-spells","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/?p=18365","title":{"rendered":"ALADDIN Looks Exceptional, but Has Some Dry Spells"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/11\/24_0007_B-merged.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-15337\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Disney certainly has gone all in with live-action remakes of\ntheir animated titles. Just two months ago we got new <em>Dumbo<\/em>, and this\nweek <em>Aladdin<\/em> is the feature being updated. This effort follows the\noriginal far more closely, which is both a benefit and a curse. The result is a\npretty looking redo with excellent production value and photography on display.\nYet its construction does feel a bit overextended, and the results are\nsomething of a mixed bag.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Aladdin-princess-dad-jafar-1024x619.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18366\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Set in the Arabian city of Agrabah,\nAladdin (Mena Massoud) is a thief who survives by taking what he can, when he\ncan (although he also seems to enjoy giving his stolen property away to the\npoor in equal measure). Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) lives in seclusion in\nthe city&#8217;s palace, resisting attempts made by her father (Navid Negahban) to find\nher a prince. Complications arise when Jasmine encounters Aladdin. Another\nthreat comes in the form of the power-mad Jafar (Marwan Kenzari), who wants the\nthrone for himself and forces Aladdin to try and retrieve a magic lamp for him.\nOf course, the protagonist soon discovers the item, rubs it and meets the Genie\n(Will Smith), who promises to deliver on three wishes for anything that Aladdin\ndesires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Aladdin-Aladdin-Genie-Talk-1024x651.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18367\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A few of the lengthier interchanges between Aladdin and the\nGenie earn a few laughs and there are also some amusing moments when a\ndim-witted prince (Billy Magnussen) arrives to try and win Jasmine&#8217;s\naffections. He&#8217;s only in a few scenes, but does make an amusing impression. The\nmovie also looks quite good. It&#8217;s definitely a spectacle, with some great set\nand elaborate numbers and crowd scenes (the filmmakers seem to enjoy employing\nconfetti cannons at every opportunity). Director Guy Ritchie (<em>Sherlock\nHolmes<\/em>, <em>The Man from U.N.C.L.E.<\/em>) also knows how to shoot action, and\nso an early chase through and above the city is exciting to watch, as are some\nlong takes that follow the actors around the elaborately designed environments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Aladdin-chase-1024x627.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18369\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Some of the CGI elements\nwork, including a flying carpet with a distinctive personality. However, a few\nof the photorealistic animals aren&#8217;t quite as effective, with neither Aladdin&#8217;s\npet monkey or a sinister parrot generating a whole lot in the way of laughs.\nJasmine&#8217;s tiger, which wanders around, growls and occasionally licks people\nmost certainly worked in the animated film, but feels a bit out of place and\nsurreal in a real world setting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/www.cinemastance.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/Aladdin-genie-1024x552.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18368\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And as great as the sets and musical numbers look, it\ncertainly feels as if the material itself has been stretched out. The original\nanimated film was a zippy 90 minutes, while this version runs well over two\nhours. Much more time is spent setting up the story and focusing on the budding\nromance between leads Aladdin and Jasmine, in addition to setting up the latter\nas a strong-willed woman who wants to take a leadership role in the kingdom. That&#8217;s\nall well and good, but they do slow the pacing, and these tangents also mean\nthat central antagonist Jafar disappears for long stretches of the story,\nleaving little in the way of a threat for much of the running time. The\nadditional musical numbers are reasonable, but don&#8217;t stand out from the more\nfamous and familiar tunes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, <em>Aladdin<\/em> looks great and has fun moments here\nand there, but some of the adapted elements are clunky, and the story begins to\nfeel drawn out by the close. It&#8217;s a reasonable effort, but not quite as\nsuccessful as the recent <em>Beauty and the Beast<\/em> redo. Personally, I could\ndo without all of these remakes, but audience members and families who are\nexcited about this update will likely find enough that works to enjoy the\nexperience. Guess it&#8217;ll only be a matter of time before Disney ends up cranking\nout live-action adaptations of <em>The Rescuers<\/em>, <em>The Black Cauldron<\/em>, <em>The\nHunchback of Notre Dame<\/em>, <em>Treasure Planet<\/em> and <em>Lilo &amp; Stitch<\/em>.\nBrace yourselves. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Disney certainly has gone all in with live-action remakes of their animated titles. Just two months ago we got new Dumbo, and this week Aladdin is the feature being updated. This effort follows the original far more closely, which is both a benefit and a curse. The result is a pretty looking redo with excellent [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":18370,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[197,905,1455,4488,4660,5922,7283,8169,8754,12535,12918,13344,13691,14429,14555,14620,17310,24295],"class_list":["post-18365","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-197","tag-aladdin","tag-animated","tag-classic-story","tag-comedy","tag-disney","tag-family","tag-genie","tag-guy-ritchie","tag-live-action","tag-magic-lamp","tag-marwan-kenzari","tag-mena-massoud","tag-musical","tag-naomi-scott","tag-navid-negahban","tag-romance","tag-will-smith"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18365"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18365\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cinemastance.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}