Movie: Aladdin

Starrung: Mena Massoud, Will Smith, Naomi Scott

Directed by: Guy Richie

“There is not enough money and power in the world to make anyone happy”.

“Steal an apple and you’re a thief, steal a kingdom and you’re a statesman”.

“People don’t see you when your royalty”.

The trailers just don’t justify this movie.

Well honestly, I’m not a fan of musicals but this one I really loved. This was such a down the memory lane movie specially for 90’s kids. Well we all knew the story line as most of us grew up watching Disney tales. Turning it into live action which Disney is going to be doing with most of their animations post the success of Beauty and the Beast and the upcoming Lion King makes it pretty interesting.

I was hooked onto it right from the start when Will Smith (Mariner) tells the story to his kids and with the Arabian Nights song and the camera panning through Agrabah, the city’s landscape to the palace with Sultan, Jasmine and Rajah. Director Guy Richie is good with his action sequences. The Aladdin introduction and the whole chase action musical sequence, one jump ahead was choreographed fabulously. It also reminded me of the Aladdin Gameplay, with the guards trying to capture him. Mena Massoud is charming as Aladdin, perfectly casted, captures the charm and the wit of Aladdin effortlessly and has a great smile looks good and is surprisingly a great dancer too. He looked very one note and wooden in the trailers though. His interactions with Jasmine and his sea view house makes for a good view. A whole new world is also a good musical number. The screenplay, cinematography and direction is woven and knitted well. The cave of wonders looks great and is creepier than the animated one. Will Smith as Genie is sassy and zany, loved his version of the Genie, he seemed so happy just to be this bundle of joy with his musical numbers, prince Ali and the instruction manual musical, Friend like me in the cave of wonders. Naomi Scott looked gorgeous as Jasmine, plays her part well speechless was so melodious and she did have a good character arc, I was rooting for Priyanka Chopra though when Disney was looking out for castings. Marwan Kenzari as Jafar plays the baddie and has done a pretty good job with his sorcerer snake sceptre. The movie has some interesting lines and I loved most of its musical numbers. Michael Wilkinson costume designs are pretty accurate. It was reminiscent of Bollywood.  Abu, Carpet , Yago, Rajah, Genie all are CGI’d amazingly. Nasim Pedrad and Navid Negahban add good support. Loved the ending. I saw it in 3D but even a good screen should do the job. I thought there were lot of places where things could pop up but there wasn’t much of a 3D aspect to what was filmed. Arabian Nights…..(singing)