Aladdin

It's fine... A very straightforward, big spectacle musical.

The new telling brings little that feels essential, and the missing elements-chiefly, the controlled chaos and unbridled comedy of the late Robin Williams' vocal performance-have given the film's candy-colored visual palate a homesick pall.

In short, it's a whole old world.

Marwan Kenzari snarls it up as the villainous Jafar, while Nasim Pedrad is endearing and funny as Jasmine's handmaiden and best friend Dalia...

There are efforts made, whether through good faith or just market savvy, to update Princess Jasmine into a people's champion who might prefer ruling to romance. Enough to make you wish the Disney people had gone whole hog and just called it Jasmine.

With "Aladdin," they've done the leveling with just enough style and pizazz that most moviegoers won't care that it's a retread, and the leads are good enough to make you hope they'll go on to something real.

Aladdin is much like its protagonist; flawed, a little clumsy, but ultimately quite winning; a diamond in the rough.

It is nonsense that tests my patience quota for two eternally boring hours. [Full review in Spanish]

A nostalgic magic carpet ride that might not be "a whole new world" of original filmmaking, but is a welcome familiar world after the depressing downer "Dumbo" (2019).

Ritchie leaves behind his trademark slow downed style of editing in favour of some questionable speeded up dance sequences which look cheap and badly edited in the flamboyancy of imagination clearly taken from Bollywood.