Live action plagiarism!

Review of The Lion King (2019) by tectash: 👎 3.0/10

If you know me you know I am really not a fan of these live action Disney films. It is why I refer to them as live action plagiarisms and not remakes. This one is the most egregious of them all though.

The reason it is the most egregious is because it is not even live action. It needs to be called 2019 Lion King not live action Lion King. The other reason why this does not work is because it enters uncanny valley territory. So you are going for realism, but in the end you have realistic looking talking lions that emote? This follows that mentality in which I can't get behind. Oh look live action is better! There are definitely things animation is much more suited for. I do not like this weird middle ground you experience with this film.

Lines feel rushed and are not given any time to breathe. The voice acting from these actors I felt was off, lacked passion and felt as if they were reading off of cards. Obviously lines are cited but at least do not make it feel as though they are. This was probably due to poor direction. There was so much soul to the original Lion King especially in the vocal performances. It feels like the creative team was like the audience knows these lines already can you make this quick and snappy?

It feels limp hollow and lifeless. James Earl Jones rip sounds as though he is having a difficult time making it through his lines. Which leads to the next thing I never understood. You bring back James Earl Jones as Mufasa but not Jeremy Irons as Scar? It feels like this movie is half stepping. If you recast Scar which obviously anyone knows was a huge component of what made the original work then you might as well recast everyone. Irons was just as pivotal as Jones was to his role if we go the route of keeping people. Bottom line either recast the whole thing or get the core players back.

Any change they make only worsens the product rather than benefiting it. The change they make to Nala makes the character far less interesting. So annoying that Disney can't understand that a character being flawed, vulnerable and not perfect adds layers and depth. The design of Scar falls flat because it does not look much different from Mufasa. Yes you have a minor scar but in the original character designs were distinct as well as colorful.

Another change that might be subtle but to me makes a world of difference is Mufasa's death. In the original Mufasa states Scar brother! Help Me! In the new he says Scar help me! It sounds as if he is ordering him to do it rather than a desperate plea. Simba's scream in the original echo throughout my head. In the new it feels as though a kid lost a game of Call of Duty.

The edits and musical numbers feel like a student film in certain aspects as well. Hard to believe a movie with this type of budget feels this phoned in. Jungle Book done by the same creative team as this one felt like it had way more care and effort put into it. Was it perfect no but much better than this film.

In the end I can not recommend this. There is nothing this has that the original doesn't do 500 times better.