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    Movie Review

    Will Smith-led Aladdin conjures enough wonder to justify live-action remake

    Alex Bentley
    May 23, 2019 | 4:15 pm
    Will Smith-led Aladdin conjures enough wonder to justify live-action remake
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    Despite the success of a few of the entries, it’s fair to wonder for whom the “live action” remakes of Disney’s animated catalog are being made. Anyone who grew up with the originals has the memories of those films locked in their hearts, and most of the films remain such classics that the kids of today can enjoy them just as much as those who came before them.

    All of which leaves films like the new Aladdin in a quandary. To justify its existence, it has to walk a fine line between honoring the original and offering up something new. The new stuff starts right away, as Genie (Will Smith) opens the film with a completely reworked version of “Arabian Nights,” a song that was famously changed in the original due to an offensive lyric.

    That change sets the tone for the film, which tweaks many things along the way so that it rarely feels like a mere copy of the animated version. Of course, the main story remains the same as “street urchin” Aladdin (Mena Massoud) pursues Princess Jasmine (Naomi Scott) despite their circumstances being designed to keep them apart.

    The big musical moments of the film — “Friend Like Me,” “Prince Ali,” and “A Whole New World” — are nearly as entertaining thanks to keen filmmaking by director Guy Ritchie. Smith is a decent successor to Robin Williams and, with a big assist from CGI, fills up the screen in his two showcases. The romance and wonder displayed in the imagery during the film’s one love song, along with the timelessness of the lyrics, makes it a winner, too.

    As “A Whole New World” was Jasmine’s sole chance to sing in the original, the filmmakers expanded her role with the empowering “Speechless,” which is broken out at two different points of the film. Written by Benji Pasek and Justin Paul (La La Land, The Greatest Showman), it’s sung well by Scott and it certainly does the job of giving Jasmine more agency over her life. However, it’s nowhere near as rousing as the other songs on the soundtrack, and it feels tacked on instead organic to the plot.

    Speaking of less-than-inspiring, Marwan Kenzari’s turn as the evil Jafar just doesn’t do the trick. The original Jafar, voiced by Jonathan Freeman, was as over-the-top as they come. In perhaps an attempt to differentiate himself, Kenzari plays Jafar relatively low-key and winds up being much too subdued to have an impact. It’s only at the end when CGI takes over that he stands out in any way.

    Smith, Scott, and Massoud are the anchors of the cast, and each lives up to the expectations of their respective roles. Smith is a polarizing figure, but he does well, especially in a new and unexpected romantic subplot with Dalia (Nasim Pedrad), Jasmine’s handmaiden. Scott, who co-starred in the 2017 Power Rangers movie and will soon star in the Charlie’s Angels reboot, looks to be the breakout from the group.

    It’s unlikely that the new Aladdin will be the cultural touchstone that the original was, but it has plenty of memorable moments that complement well the iconic ones many of us hold near and dear.

    Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud in Aladdin.

    Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud in Aladdin
      
    Photo courtesy of Walt Disney Studios
    Naomi Scott and Mena Massoud in Aladdin.
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    Movie Review

    Final Destination: Bloodlines reboots cult favorite horror franchise

    Alex Bentley
    May 15, 2025 | 4:30 pm
    Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines
    Photo by Eric Milner
    Kaitlyn Santa Juana in Final Destination: Bloodlines.

    On the surface, the Final Destination films really shouldn’t work. There is no villain other than the concept of death itself, and nearly every death that occurs is foreshadowed so heavily that it removes the normal suspense that comes in horror films. And yet the franchise was successful enough to spawn five films over 11 years in the early 2000s, and now a reboot, Final Destination: Bloodlines.

    A fantastic opening sequence set in the 1960s sets both the tone and the plot of the film, in which Stefani (Kaitlyn Santa Juana) has a recurring nightmare about a disaster that her grandmother, Iris (Gabrielle Rose), helped to avert. A visit to the reclusive Iris convinces Stefani that she and her family should not exist, and that each one of them is destined to meet a grisly end in the near future.

    Met with resistance from her family members, Kaitlyn is unsurprisingly proven right as the film goes along, with different people dying in a variety of bizarre ways. A visit to William Bludworth (the late Tony Todd), a mortician who’s been the one constant in the series, provides a glimmer of hope that they can cheat death. But will they figure it out before it’s too late?

    Directed by Zach Lipovsky and Adam B. Stein, and written by Guy Busick and Lori Evans Taylor, the film does not try to reinvent the wheel for the concept. The entire point is to get as creative as possible with the death scenes, and the filmmakers take that mandate seriously, with each successive death becoming increasingly gruesome. The Rube Goldberg-like manner in which each death occurs makes the scenes come off as entertaining instead of off-putting.

    The idea of Death hunting down an entire family line due to the actions of the family elder is a solid twist on the series’ central premise, and that change keeps the film from feeling repetitive. The story also introduces the possibility that the entire series is connected due to Iris’ actions, with the character possessing a scrapbook that references well-known incidents from previous films, a fun Easter egg for longtime fans.

    The creativity of the kill sequences does not carry over to the overall story, though. Almost every character in the film only exists in order to meet a horrific end, so anything that they have going on outside of being stalked by Death is purely window dressing. Consequently, it’s hard to really care about anybody, even if they are all related to one another.

    Because characters are so easily dispatched in the film, the cast is devoid of well-known actors. This is by far Santa Juana’s biggest role to date, and she does well enough to want to see more of her in the future. Adults like Alex Zahara and Rya Kihlstedt are character actors who bring some history with them, while the younger group is composed of people still trying to make names for themselves.

    Final Destination: Bloodlines is a solid return for the franchise, even if it feels more like a one-off film rather than a justification for more stories in the future. But given how easily the concept can be adapted into new circumstances, don’t be surprised if another movie pops up in a couple of years.

    ---

    Final Destination: Bloodlines opens in theaters on May 16.

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