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Summary:

A kindhearted street urchin and a power-hungry Grand Vizier vie for a magic lamp that has the power to make their deepest wishes come true.

Director:

Guy Ritchie

Writers:

screenplay by John August, Guy Ritchie

based on the film Aladdin by Ron Clements, John Musker, Ted Elliott, Terry Rossio

Cast:

• Mena Massoud as Aladdin

• Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine

• Will Smith as Genie

• Marwan Kenzari as Jafar

• Navid Negahban as The Sultan

• Nasim Pedrad as Dalia

• Billy Magnussen as Prince Anders

• Numan Acar as Hakim

• Robby Haynes as Raz Al Ghoul

• Jordan A. Nash as Omar

• Taliyah Blair as Lian

• Aubrey Lin as Omi

• Amir Boutrous as Jamal

• Alan Tudyk as Iago

• Frank Welker as Abu / Rajah / Cave of Wonders

Rotten Tomatoes:

Metacritic:

After Credits Scene? No

All previous official discussions can be found on

Rotten Tomatoes: , with 6.01 out of 10 Average and 97 Reviews Counted

Critics Consensus

Aladdin retells its classic source material's story with sufficient spectacle and skill, even if it never approaches the dazzling splendor of the animated original.

Metacritic: based on 36 critic reviews

Description:

A street rat frees a genie from a lamp, granting all of his wishes and transforming himself into a charming prince in order to marry a beautiful princess. But soon, an evil sorcerer becomes hell-bent on securing the lamp for his own sinister purposes.

Trailers:

Release Date:

May 24, 2019 (North America)

Starring:

• Will Smith

• Naomi Scott

• Mena Massoud

• Marwan Kenzari

• Billy Magnussen

• Nasim Pedrad

• Numan Acar

• Navid Negahban

• Alan Tudyk

Director:

Guy Ritchie (The Man From U.N.C.L.E. & Sherlock Holmes)

Writers:

Guy Ritchie & John August (Frankenweenie & Corpse Bride)

Running Time:

128 Minutes

Written Reviews

When Aladdin gets it right, it propels you high on a magic-carpet ride. But the odd bum note thrusts you straight out of Arabia and back into your cinema seat.

Another lavish and largely entertaining Disney re-do, with strong turns from Massoud and Scott. But, appropriately for someone playing a huge, powerful entity trapped in a tiny ornament, Smith’s genie performance feels disappointingly constrained — both by overdependence on the original and some ghastly CGI.

If you don’t think about it very hard (although you probably should), the remake of “Aladdin” might entertain you. But you’d be a heck of a lot more entertained by watching the original film again. Or by going to a real-life parade. Or by doing some light gardening. Or by doing a crossword puzzle.

Smith will get the majority of the attention, bringing so much of his own brand to the Genie (he even calls out his own name in the end-credits song). Yet Scott commands her share of respect as Jasmine, reinventing the character via the movie’s contemporary-sounding “Speechless” — the closest thing to a female empowerment anthem Disney has given us since Queen Elsa let it go in “Frozen.”

On the whole, Ritchie’s adaptation wisely does little except add human flesh to the bare bones of what was always one of Disney’s strongest stories (if you need a plot summary you must have been living in a cave for the last 1,000 years). It still holds up as a tale whose central couple’s deceptions and entrapments and self-discoveries have a pleasing symmetry to them, and whose “it’s what’s inside that counts” morals are in the right place. That’s really all anyone wanted out of a new Aladdin: not a whole new world, just a slightly updated old one.

For better and for worse, Guy Ritchie has made the film that is already in your head, offering you a chance to place your imagination on ice. Finger’s crossed this isn’t the creative mantra for forthcoming additions to the extending “live action” Disney multiverse.

Happily, while it may not have the directorial personality of Tim Burton's dark Dumbo or the musical majesty of Beauty and the Beast, this Aladdin is still an enjoyable take on the Middle Eastern folk tale, benefitting from terrific performances from a fun, fast-talking and scene-stealing Smith, alongside Mena Massoud and Naomi Scott, as Aladdin and Jasmine.

This new Aladdin is perhaps the first instance I can recall of being sorry that I saw a film in IMAX: the huge format only amplifies the movie’s problems… which also include a total lack of chemistry between the romantic leads and the complete lack of any bite at all on the part of the villain, Marwan Kenzari’s Jafar, vizier to the sultan. It might be a whole new world here, compared to the original cartoon, but it’s certainly not a better one.

The candy-colored costumes and production design are stunning, Alan Menken’s songs are as infectious as ever, the dance numbers have an electric Bollywood flair, and some of the bazaar chase sequences have a Young Indiana Jones sense of rollicking, Rube Goldberg fun. But mostly it all feels too dutiful, too familiar. This is where we are in 2019. The ever-quickening half-life of pop culture has gotten so short that we’ve now officially entered the era of diminishing returns. It’s the new normal. What’s old is new again — but not quite as good as you remembered it. Aladdin is…fine, but it has no real reason for being beyond, you know, capitalism. A whole new world, it’s not.

the ensemble in this version, directed by Guy Ritchie, features lead performers of Egyptian, South Asian, Dutch-Tunisian, Iranian and African American descent. The combination of diverse casting and female empowerment themes results in a perfectly politically correct Aladdin for these times. The only thing that seems to have been left out is the magic, which is a bit of a problem considering that one of the main characters is a genie.

The most surprising part of Guy Ritchie’s “Aladdin” isn’t that it’s far better (more fun, more frisky, more coherent) than a string of maligned trailers have let on, it’s that no one ever got the bright idea to rename the whole thing “Genie” and turn all of the film’s attention on Will Smith. While early looks at the film — especially scenes that focused on Smith turning on the bravado with a vibrant song-and-dance — were received badly enough that both Ritchie and Smith were asked to respond to the critical jabs, within the context of Ritchie’s warmly silly film, they work. They really, really work. That’s not to say that Ritchie’s live-action treatment of the beloved animated classic doesn’t have other elements to recommend it, but Smith puts on such an outsized performance that it’s easy for him to overshadow its smaller joys — and when Genie is suddenly silenced in a limp third act, the entire film suffers.

Just as I adore the animated Beauty and the Beast, I also have a lot of love for the animated Aladdin and wanted both live-action adaptations to do justice to their source material. I understand that filmmakers don’t want to make a carbon copy of those animated features with live-action subbed in for animation. But what’s unfortunate with Aladdin is that there are clear moments when they’ve found something new and then the film falls back to Earth under the weight of over-explaining character motivations or trying to throw in additional elements that just don’t work. Aladdin serves its purpose of being an IP that Disney can easily sell but judged on being a worthy adaptation of the animated classic or even a decent family film, there’s no magic here.

Go in with an open mind. Do not compare this to the original. After being incredibly critical of the trailers (they didn’t do the movie justice, by the way) I went in with low expectations. I was critical of the casting, of the Genie’s blue CGI, and of the lackluster singing during the trailers. Once I was in the theater and let myself enjoy the experience, the smiles kept creeping up.

Young ones can still enjoy it, and for parents of the right age, there might be a tinge at remembering the classic, or simply when Will Smith was in good movies. But if you expect magic in this carpet ride, you’re going to get rolled.

Disney managed to get its two lead stars right and yet still managed to bungle one of its most-beloved movies. While a younger generation will appreciate Jasmine's stronger story, Disney would've served the story better by recreating the film people know and love for the reasons that made it a classic.

“It’s clumsy, but in a charming way,” a palace servant declares about halfway through “Aladdin,” and I’m inclined to agree. The servant, whose name is Dalia (Nasim Pedrad), is describing the sweet overtures of a man (Will Smith) she does not yet realize is a powerful genie. But she could also be talking about the movie she’s in, which is all kinds of flat-footed yet wrings more high-spirited merriment than you’d expect from what is essentially a lavish exercise in cinematic refurbishment.

It is frequently quite charming, largely thanks to the efforts of Mena Massoud, who captures Aladdin’s irrepressible charisma every second he’s onscreen. Much of the new story material written for the film works, and it’s enjoyable, if pedestrian, family fare. But the terrible musical sequences, the lackluster CGI, and the strange creative and emotional restraint that permeates the film frequently flatten Disney’s original Aladdin into a cardboard version of itself.

Video Reviews

Last night I had the chance to see the Aladdin remake early in Manhattan thanks to a Broadway Facebook group I'm in.

Here's my take on it:

Will Smith was actually pretty funny as the Genie. Nobody can top Robin Williams' performance, but Will Smith definitely makes the character his own (with a short Robin tribute at one point. Won't spoil it).

Mena Massoud was great as Aladdin. He's got a pretty decent singing voice (if there was any auto tune, it wasn't obvious)

Naomi Scott killed it as Jasmine. She gets a new Let-It-Go style power ballad that was really good.

Just like suspected, Jafar was horribly miscast. He wasn't intimating at all. Iago at one point was more terrifying that Jafar.

Overall, I was pleasantly surprised. I originally had zero intentions of seeing the film based on the previews, but when this opportunity popped up, I decided "why not?," and I was glad I did.

If I had to give it a score out of 10, I'd say it's probably around a 7.5.