WildSimba wrote:Just saw it. It's pretty awful. Overly drawn out scenes for no reason other than to pad out the runtime, the important scenes were either rushed or sometimes cut entirely. The acting was flat and sometimes really awkward and bad. Beyonce's spirit completely ruins an important scene. Scar [censored] Mufasa off a cliff. The new soundtrack is awful (save for elton's new song and some of the score which is still great in areas). The story and style of TLK doesn't translate well into the realistic style they're going for, and some scenes, mainly IJCWTBK and be prepared are ruined as a result.
Timon and Pumbaa were the only real saving grace, I'll fully admit that I like how they worked off of eachother and they managed to get some unironic laughs out of me. I've been a TLK fan for a long time, I like all 3 of the animated films, I'm sorry people but this ain't it. I SERIOUSLY couldn't see anyone over the age of like 3 liking this to any serious capacity. The entire time I was sitting there thinking, wow, I could be watching the original film right now.
Have to agree with this unfortunately. We both saw the film together last night (had to wait for someone to stream it when it came out on DVD since it was only in theaters a week or two here and I was hesitant to shell out ten bucks for a film I've basically already seen, lol). Honestly will admit that I was hopeful when I first heard there'd be a remake since TLK is a personal fave of mine and Jon Favreau did well both with the Jungle Book and the original Iron Man movie so I figured he'd be capable of giving the film an interesting perspective. Unfortunately though it's clear that with how big TLK is as a franchise he most likely wasn't allowed the same room for creative choices as he was with, for example, Jungle Book. As a result the film ended up being the exact kind of shot-for-shot remake that I was hoping it would not become despite that being increasingly apparent the closer we got to release. A big shame, really. I think Disney's definitely figured out that they can just make almost the exact same film and remarket it and make loads of money even if there's little to nothing new or creative behind it. Their earlier adaptations such as Maleficent and Alice in Wonderland at the very least offered new perspectives or ideas that made them quite a bit different from the originals but that's been extremely lacking for a long time in these remakes, at least as far as I can tell based off the ones I've seen (admittedly not many).
In all fairness, it's not quite as bad as the 2017 Beauty and the Beast. The new songs are at least okay or better, if slightly jarring in one instance (Beyonce's "Spirit", which I don't think was a bad song per se but really appeared out of nowhere). Elton's new song is catchy, and Zimmer's soundtrack still shines through in places. Timon and Pumbaa are genuinely enjoyable and by far the most lively of the cast. I was skeptical about Seth Rogen as Pumbaa at first but he sells it to me and it sounds like they are actually having fun in their roles. I'll even admit I chuckled at a few of Banzai's lines, too. Most of the other actors, however, sound completely bored for the duration of the film. I was excited to see how they would bring Scar to the new CGI movie as he was one of my favorite aspects of the original but it feels like they tried to give the new actor nearly the same material as Jeremy Irons despite the fact that the line readings distinctly make the character lack personality. I'd argue he is even worse than the new Jafar as the VA's delivery feels as flat as a smashed-down cardboard box (and about as interesting). The new version of Be Prepared is majorly cut down and also lacks any charm or style, and that's a major letdown for me.
Which - going back to that - is another issue entirely. The fact this movie feels dull and colorless compared to the original in the new photorealistic format is something that's already been talked about to death, so I won't say much on it here, but it definitely is most obvious in the musical numbers. I really don't think a single one of them stands out to me, especially when you hold them against the 1994 versions. They just feel extremely lacking. I could almost deal with the visuals (which at times are amazing, at times jarring and unpleasant) and the lessened emotive capacities of the characters if there were something to make up for it in the voice acting but that is
definitely not the case for any of them aside from T&P. The result you end up with is a cast of nature documentary animals that sound like they want to take a nap and this makes it difficult to feel emotion about any of the scenes taking place. Like David said, many key scenes are rushed through and while I definitely appreciate any attempt at expanding the lore, adding new lines or introducing new material in these otherwise shot-for-shot remakes, I don't think many of the changes really add all that much. There are now new animals, for example, in the jungle with Simba and T&P - and while I'll admit I've always wondered why such a lush forest is so empty in the original film, from a narrative perspective they are filler. I think the only time they made a change definitively for the better was when they changed Scar's pretext for bringing Simba to the gorge into a more straight-faced tale related to finding his roar... which I think works better for me because the thought of this new Scar attempting to emulate the original's wheedling lines about the 'surprise' in the gorge and his conniving, saccharine charm seems like it would have been way too much to ask and I can't imagine I would've been sold on it. In all honesty, they probably realized it was pointless to try and finally decided to just do something completely different for once.
Right after you get a semi-interesting tidbit like this though - new lines from Simba and Nala, a glimpse into Mufasa and Scar's childhood/relationship, new dialogue from T&P, a new song - the film just thrusts you right back into the same old rhythm of hurriedly rushing from one key scene to the next. Like most of the remakes it's a paint-by-numbers version of TLK, basically, and it's far from the best Favreau could have done with it. All in all, it's like drinking coffee that's been watered down into a bland, tepid mess - maybe it gets the job done, but there's really no reason you wouldn't be better off just enjoying the original when it's, y'know, a film that already exists. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
So, voting on the "worse than 94" team.
