Look, I'm very much in favor of giving directors the creative freedom to put their own spin on whatever they're adapting.
In fact, I think it's quite shallow and close-minded to judge an adaptation against its source material, pretending as if that's meant to be some holy grail of perfection.
That being said: the whole appeal of the Uncharted games in the first place is that they feel like a mix of Indiana Jones and Mission Impossible, with this sassy, horny, shit-talking protagonist at the center of it.
This movie captures neither of those aspects, and replaces them with basic movie tropes.
It doesn't feel like the aforementioned franchises. Instead, it looks and feels like your generic, throwaway action movie that usually stars The Rock (e.g.Rampage, Red Notice, Skyscraper).
Tom Holland plays Spider-man with attitude. He's not playing (a younger version of) Nathan Drake.
Mark Wahlberg plays Mark Wahlberg.
Like, why was this project treated like a tax write-off?
It has everything a Hollywood executive could want: the source material is cinematic, action packed, fun, and best of all: it has a built in audience.
This could've easily been the next big summer franchise if this was given a proper treatment. It should be much easier to get this right than other videogame based adaptations.
So why is Avi Arad producing this? Why is Ruben Fleischer directing this? Why is this script burning through four games of material? Why is the dialogue so clunky and unfunny? Why is the casting so lame? Why does it look like plastic, when the cinematographer of this thing shot Last Night in Soho and Oldboy?
Fuck.
3.5/10
Disney’s 2019 version of Aladdin provides us with pleasant surprises and a few hiccups along the ride on the magic carpet. Agrabah looks amazing, you totally feel the Arabian vibe and still is a city with more depth then in the original animated movie with more cultures mixed into one. Jasmine has a well written storyline which is not only fitting for the time we live in now, it’s also very in depth and gives her even more of an edge. She truly outshines the animated Jasmine. Mena’s performance is almost identical to the original. Great acting and good looks. Although I was more anticipated for the Genie’s performance, it was Jafar who surprised me, but not always in a good way. I liked this style and Jafar being younger and more appealing. Marwan showed us great acting by letting us feel Jafar truly is dangerous. What I missed though are iconic moments the animated movie showed us like turning into a snake, make genie lift up the castle and being the old poor man who tricks Aladdin into the cave of wonders, which wasn’t all that wonderous to me at all. The feeling of the cave popping up from the sand was something I really missed, the interior though is flawless and well put together. Aladdin started of stronger then it ended but overall, this new adaptation left me ‘Speechless’ thanks to its wonderful cast, set design and refreshing plots.
