The New ‘Aladdin’ Trailer Shows Off More CGI Will Smith, Because It Looked So Good Last Time
He's less blue this time, at least.
Guy Ritchie’s forthcoming live action Aladdin hasn’t had what one might describe as an easy journey to the screen.
There’s been murmurings for some time that execs are unhappy with the film — worried that the lack of Middle Eastern extras will trigger a backlash, worried about the long and blown out shooting schedule. News reports that the crew were digitally darkening the skin of extras didn’t help things, and neither did an early teaser, which showed off Will Smith’s smurf-like, “insanely blue” genie.
So, take all that on board, lower your expectations for the big budget extravaganza just a smidge, and then feast your eyes upon the film’s first full-length trailer.
Credit where credit is due: this trailer’s easily the most entertaining look at the film we’ve gotten so far. Smith at least looks like he’s having fun, zooming about the place on a cloud of CGI fuckery and snapping off some pretty good one-liners (even if his chicanery does call to mind Robin Williams’ beloved performance in the original, a comparison that’s unlikely to help this new remake.)
He’s also significantly less blue: looks like he’s only adopting the Smurf look for key moments in the movie, which is the very definition of good news.
Then there’s the healthy dose the trailer gives us of Hot Jafar, one of the few positive takeaways from the early marketing materials. I mean, the dude is clearly not a good actor — he looks like he’s having his teeth pulled when he spits some of that exposition towards the front of the trailer — but he is extremely hot, and in our workaday world, isn’t that what really matters?
I think I’m Team Jafar, you guys pic.twitter.com/WgUt30c0gu
— Dana Schwartz (@DanaSchwartzzz) December 19, 2018
Don’t consider this unilateral praise. The whole thing still looks like a mix between a perfume ad and a PS2 game, and the trailer’s biggest drawcard — a snippet of ‘A Whole New World’ — doesn’t exactly wow.
But hey, things are on the up, at least!
We’ll find out when Aladdin hits cinemas on Thursday May 23.