'Aladdin' Movie Review: Will Smith is fine in the film. Another guy's the problem

It’s pretty clear after watching new live-action “Aldin” that doubts about Will Smith’s casting as Genie are overblown. It’s guy behind camera who should be doubted. And stuffed into a small lamp forever.

Guy Ritchie — that lover of gritty gangsters and violent action — was always an odd choice to helm a big Disney romantic musical and proves utterly wrong guy here. ”Aldin ,” in his hands, is more like “ Mummy” than “Frozen.” This is an “Aldin” with a torture scene and pointlessly artful fast-slow-motion action scenes.

Going into it, Smith was question mark. How can you possibly have a real actor play shape-shifting, manic spirit that Robin Williams so wonderfully voiced in animated film? Smith struggles at first before perhaps listening to his own character’s vice: Be yourself.

Ritchie, who directs and is a co-screenwriter alongside John August, has basically taken 1992 film’s structure, ded elements from Broway musical and me some nice script tweaks, most impressively by ding a second love story and updating Princess Jasmine from pretty eyewitness to fierce participant. script also doubles down on tion that everyone seems trapped in roles y are born into.

Mena Massoud gamely plays title character, a street urchin with good hair who falls for free-spirited princess and has his life changed with one rub of a magic lamp. Naomi Scott is princess and she is a worthy Disney heroine for 2019 — funny, strong, brave and with a sinfully good voice.

key Alan Menken melodies from original film — including “Friend Like Me,” ?Prince Ali” and “A Whole New World” — are all here, as well as “Speechless,” a new song written by Menken and Benj Pasek and Justin Paul (“La La Land”), performed by Jasmine. It’s terrific and may finally replace “Let It Go” as go-to Disney anm.

film’s or highlights are Michael Wilkinson’s lush costumes, a pare of entirely digital animals — including fantastically realized Abu monkey, Rajah tiger and a hugging magic Carpet — and breakout performances from “Saturday Night Live” alum Nasim Pedr as a handmaiden and Billy Magnussen as a prince. Choreographer Jamal Sims combines hip-hop and Bollywood in glorious mashups.

But production design by Gemma Jackson is pure Middle Eastern-South Asian kitsch — complete with expected food stalls, crumbling walls and constant bustle. (Let’s face it, all vaguely Middle Eastern urban scenes haven’t changed much since “Raiders of Lost Ark”.) And a real stumble is me in Cave of Wonders, which is horribly under-realized — it looks like a cat threw up gold coins and rubies.

Marwan Kenzari is a younger Jafar than we are used to but he’s evidently been told to go full-psychotic by end, including screaming like he’s in “ Wrath of Khan” as thunder roars and his eyes bulge. Even so, he w has a backstory and some nice lines, including “Steal an apple, you’re a thief. Steal a kingdom, you’re a statesman.”

Smith’s Genie is a martini-drinking, yoga-posing, needy showoff with a top kt and an armful of popular culture references (“ crowd goes wild!” he says). When he’s blue, he’s purely a visual effect and trying too hard to be late Robin Williams. When he’s rmal, he’s Smith — and better. A scene in which Genie tries to help tongue-tied Aldin at court is Smith at his funniest in years.

But everywhere else you feel a restless Ritchie. He has fallen in love with making things explode in a burst of sand. He breaks fourth wall in one moment and never returns. He creates an abrupt, out-of-left-field fantasy sequence for “Speechless” and never repeats it. He is very good at action — and even mocks art form when he makes a pile of spice shudder as something massive approaches, like in “Jurassic Park” — but can’t decide on a consistent visual style. He seems bored by quiet moments. Even his romantic “A Whole New World” carpet ride — a slam dunk for any filmmaker — is me somehow harrowing.

film’s lurch from one direction to next is capped off by a disastrous remix of “Friend Like Me” that plays over end credits, with Smith resurrecting his ’90s friendly rapper while DJ Khaled keeps screaming “Ar one!” Again, Menken, Pasek and Paul — some of our greatest atrical songwriters — are on deck here. It’s last of many clumsy touches, but t in a charming way.

“Aldin,” a Disney release, is rated PG for “some action/peril.” Running time: 128 minutes. Two stars out of four.