Aladdin Trailer Reactions: 4 Ups & 5 Downs
Downs...
5. The Production Looks Embarrassingly Cheap
Despite Aladdin having a budget somewhere in the $150-200 million ballpark, it's shocking just how damn cheap and low-fi the film continues to look.
From the weirdly fake-looking sets - which mesh awkwardly with some less-than-convincing CGI - to costumes that look ripped straight out of the TV show Once Upon a Time, the production looks like it was thrown together for less than half of what it likely cost.
The visual effects are also a majorly mixed bag all-around: Will Smith's Genie certainly looks better here, but there are still some awkward shots where Smith's blue face looks plastic and ugly, as though pasted over a digital wireframe model.
And much of the CGI-assisted action looks laughably fake - even for the standards of a Disney fantasy - with busy action sequences devolving into a garish blur.
This isn't the first Guy Ritchie film to suffer from a bloated budget that wasn't reflected on screen: his previous film, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, somehow cost Warner Bros. $175 million despite looking significantly cheaper than that.