How so? It certainly doesn't show.
Bigger name doesn't mean better talent.
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The Lion King (2019) Review Thread
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How so? It certainly doesn't show.
Bigger name doesn't mean better talent.
Sigh yes....i miss the smart cocky calculated scar where he dug his nails in and slowly said long live the kind instead of being just an angry pissant
It's hard to gauge if it shows or not from a few couple minute trailers versus actually seeing the movie.
Tbf even in the original canon Scar does some dumb shit.
lmao, this is so bad. The sly smile on Scar's face as he realizes that he has won coupled with Jeremy Irons' brilliant delivery is what makes the original scene. Nu Scar just comes across like a dumb brute.
slayven's been farting in your toaster every day for the past month
Okay then.
I guess you noticed the big ABC logo in one of those clips huh. :P
I get a strong feeling they weren't going for quality here. Especially when you look at the other remakes. I don't think that's the goal. I think they just need it to be decent.
Also, I think this movie will easily hit $1B. Disney knows this and that's why this movie exists today.
What this film is doing is making me appreciate how great the original film is.
One positive for this movie is the soundtrack - Hans zimmer did an amazing job again.
Yeah that is sad.
Some of these reviews note that children don't seem to like this lion king remake as much and that they appear bored. I think it being super realistic has something to do with it.
Are people supposed to feel some kind of emotion in this scene
I'm a little horrified
Does that count?
Elba woulda been a dope Scar, especially since he can ham it up just right when need be and sell it, while still nailing the more subtle sinister notes.
Saw it last night.
To recycle a criticism I used for A View To A Kill, it has all the ingredients of a fantastic film (lauded director, famous actors, Disney studio/budget) on paper. But the execution is appallingly bad.
Overall I went from "OK, this isn't so bad" to "hmm, poor remake but OK film" to "actually this film is just poor" to "please make it stop now". It was a rollercoaster of non-emotion.
Edit: Disclaimer - the 1994 film is my favourite film, so I am very attached to it. Expect some bias.
To recycle a criticism I used for A View To A Kill, it has all the ingredients of a fantastic film (lauded director, famous actors, Disney studio/budget) on paper. But the execution is appallingly bad.
Overall I went from "OK, this isn't so bad" to "hmm, poor remake but OK film" to "actually this film is just poor" to "please make it stop now". It was a rollercoaster of non-emotion.
Edit: Disclaimer - the 1994 film is my favourite film, so I am very attached to it. Expect some bias.
Visuals
The visuals were bloody amazing, especially the environments. I had to keep pinching myself to remind me that it wasn't real. This film absolutely deserves the Oscar for visual effects, I don't know how it can be one-upped this year.
If anything, though, it was too realistic. The colours are accurate for an African savanna landscape from what I've seen, but they could have sexed it up even a little bit. Pumbaa looked like body horror and Timon was a little creepy.
Acting
Awful. I don't know if this was because of the actors or voice direction or both (I've seen all of these ruin video games), but the delivery was wooden all the way through.
James Earl Jones sounded like he was reading from a script for the first time. I would have been happier if they'd just recycled his audio from the first film.
Simba and Nala's argument was like two people reading off a script and trying to channel generic anger. There was no sense that the characters cared about what they were saying. Also, Nala somehow developed a southern accent when she grew up.
John Oliver and Billy Eichner were fine as Zazu and Timon, but I can't be fair here because Rowan Atkinson and Nathan Lane are two actors who are really impossible to live up to in their roles.
Notable exception: Scar. Chiwetel Ejiofor was playing a very different, much darker, character than Jeremy Irons was, and it showed. He was the only one not playing a character along notes already established 25 years ago.
Songs
Circle of Life was...fine. Not as good as the original, but it was fine.
I Just Can't Wait To Be King was actually enjoyable. The bombastic Busby Berkeley number was replaced by a bunch of animal dodging, but I didn't mind. It worked well when divorced from the original.
Be Prepared came out of nowhere and felt very out of character for Scar. It was weird that he was talking in rhythm with little to no backing track, it made him look a bit unhinged.
Hakuna Matata, meh. Song itself was fine, but all of the iconic scenery from the original was gone. They were just walking through the forest.
Shadowland was my favourite so-- oh wait, it wasn't there. They specifically added the scene it's from and then didn't include the song.
Can You Feel The LoveTonight This Afternoon...
a) the prior scene, the song and the following scene were all during the day, wtf
b) someone needed to tell Beyoncé the meaning of the line "the peace the evening brings", because there was no peace in her singing
c) the visuals were BORING AS SHIT
Spirit was incredibly out of place. Should have been a credits song instead of that new Elton John song. I guess Beyoncé really wants that Oscar.
Writing
Some new lines were good, most of it sucked. In general, if it was added for comic relief then it was fine, otherwise it sucked.
There were new characters and new scenes, which I would argue were all unnecessary additions. They also seemed to shorten the back half of the film, because the film felt very rushed from the Simba/Nala reunion on. The characters were practically racing each other to get their lines out.
The Mufasa-in-the-sky scene was especially poor. The part where Mufasa shamed his son for turning his back on his legacy was removed.
Incidentally, the part where Simba shouted at the sky earlier ("You said you'd always be there for me! But you're not.") was also removed.
The visuals were bloody amazing, especially the environments. I had to keep pinching myself to remind me that it wasn't real. This film absolutely deserves the Oscar for visual effects, I don't know how it can be one-upped this year.
If anything, though, it was too realistic. The colours are accurate for an African savanna landscape from what I've seen, but they could have sexed it up even a little bit. Pumbaa looked like body horror and Timon was a little creepy.
Acting
Awful. I don't know if this was because of the actors or voice direction or both (I've seen all of these ruin video games), but the delivery was wooden all the way through.
James Earl Jones sounded like he was reading from a script for the first time. I would have been happier if they'd just recycled his audio from the first film.
Simba and Nala's argument was like two people reading off a script and trying to channel generic anger. There was no sense that the characters cared about what they were saying. Also, Nala somehow developed a southern accent when she grew up.
John Oliver and Billy Eichner were fine as Zazu and Timon, but I can't be fair here because Rowan Atkinson and Nathan Lane are two actors who are really impossible to live up to in their roles.
Notable exception: Scar. Chiwetel Ejiofor was playing a very different, much darker, character than Jeremy Irons was, and it showed. He was the only one not playing a character along notes already established 25 years ago.
Songs
Circle of Life was...fine. Not as good as the original, but it was fine.
I Just Can't Wait To Be King was actually enjoyable. The bombastic Busby Berkeley number was replaced by a bunch of animal dodging, but I didn't mind. It worked well when divorced from the original.
Be Prepared came out of nowhere and felt very out of character for Scar. It was weird that he was talking in rhythm with little to no backing track, it made him look a bit unhinged.
Hakuna Matata, meh. Song itself was fine, but all of the iconic scenery from the original was gone. They were just walking through the forest.
Shadowland was my favourite so-- oh wait, it wasn't there. They specifically added the scene it's from and then didn't include the song.
Can You Feel The Love
a) the prior scene, the song and the following scene were all during the day, wtf
b) someone needed to tell Beyoncé the meaning of the line "the peace the evening brings", because there was no peace in her singing
c) the visuals were BORING AS SHIT
Spirit was incredibly out of place. Should have been a credits song instead of that new Elton John song. I guess Beyoncé really wants that Oscar.
Writing
Some new lines were good, most of it sucked. In general, if it was added for comic relief then it was fine, otherwise it sucked.
There were new characters and new scenes, which I would argue were all unnecessary additions. They also seemed to shorten the back half of the film, because the film felt very rushed from the Simba/Nala reunion on. The characters were practically racing each other to get their lines out.
The Mufasa-in-the-sky scene was especially poor. The part where Mufasa shamed his son for turning his back on his legacy was removed.
Incidentally, the part where Simba shouted at the sky earlier ("You said you'd always be there for me! But you're not.") was also removed.
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He, it's fun to look at this thread and the reviews and then looking at Social Media like Facebook, reading through the comments and thinking "God damn it, all hope is lost". People love the movie and I don't know how many people said "I like it more than the cartoon!! Cool graphics".
All hope is lost.
All hope is lost.
Channel named "movie clips", posts theatre camera rips with what I assume are ads for betting sites, lmao absolutely shameless
That Scar/Mufassa scene linked above reminds me of that awful shot-for-shot remake of Psycho with Vince Vaughn. I legit laughed when I saw them straight up recreating shots from the original but with bleeding edge CG, it's like the definition of soulless filmmaking.
Yeah it doesn't really leave a major impact compared to the animated version.
This movie looks like CGI taxidermy. At least it saved them the trouble of grafting actual corpses onto animatronic puppets.Are people supposed to feel some kind of emotion in this scene
So disappointed. I wish Disney would remaster all these animated classics and release them in the theater so I could take my daughter.
I really didn't imagine it would look as bad as it does after the trailers, there are so many cat videos out there showing you how to trick people into thinking they are portraying human emotions...how do you end up with something this stale?
No and I think I won't. The Hakuna Matata scene already lost me. There ain't no charm anymore in it. The CGI is perfect though I can give them that.
urgh and there is also this:
Then who are you to judge others opinions so harshly? I'd say people enjoying a movie they like is far less problematic than insulting others opinions because reviewers didn't like the movie. You literally haven't seen the damn movie and you're mocking people for liking it.
Please get off me. I will still judge people that praise this movie when it seems like it lost everything it had. I don't need to waste my money now because there are more than enough reviews that have the same opinion and I've also seen most of the leaked clips on Youtube by now and MY opinion still stands. People loving that heartless remake will only push Disney further in their doings and we will get more cold moneymakers like this and I don't like that.
I know that I am probably in the minority here, but I liked it. I appreciated the realistic take of the movie. I found it to be more than a copy/paste of the original. It tried to bring something unique to a story we all know and love and it made the soundtrack shine even more (the feels are still here). And I really liked the small differences with the original.
I gave it a scathing review, but the visuals are gorgeous - it's totally worth watching in the cinema for that. It won't be the same on a smaller screen.
How very weird that Aslan in Disney's own Narnia movies was so much more expressive against a cast of living people...
I was literally thinking about this the other day
Idris did an amazing job with Khan, but that kind of performance wouldn't work for Scar. Khan is a walking tank; you get the feeling that he could solo the entire cast of the film. He only meets his end through a trick, even. Scar is different. He's not physically imposing at all, and requires an army to back up his claim. Scar is more of a highly educated, two faced "court intrigue" style backstabber, and Jeremy Irons encapsulated that perfectly with his performance. Maybe Idris could also give that kind of performance but I feel that his voice is just too naturally powerful, for lack of a better word.
I have a 70" LG OLED....it will look better than in the cinema. :)
Edit: Sound though...
Someone actually thought this was a good ideaAre people supposed to feel some kind of emotion in this scene
The Lion King is about to fall below Aladdin on rottentomatoes. Holy shit! I never saw this coming.
Who can we blame for this disaster of a film? I'm hesitant to put blame on Jon Favreau because he is a good director and The Jungle Book was great.
I'm so disappointed.
Who can we blame for this disaster of a film? I'm hesitant to put blame on Jon Favreau because he is a good director and The Jungle Book was great.
I'm so disappointed.
It's Jon Favreau. He claims he was inspired by an African safari he went to, six months before talking to Disney about doing TLK.
Straight out of the movie's press kit.
He also went into it with a worrying mentality about it to be honest
If you're afraid of tackling this property, then maybe shouldn't tackle this property. And even less if your only objective here is slather some visual effects on top of it.
I kinda feel sorry for Favreau, but also not really.
But it's all the big honchos at Disney for allowing him to do this, unchecked and unfettered. Honestly it's absolutely fucking strange that this company would just hand off a remake of their veritable crown jewel to an external VFX company like MPC.
Oof. It wasn't good. People are not lying when they say there's no emotion behind, well, anything. The voice actors are terribad as is the dialogue.
There are exceptions to this of course: Scar, Timon/pumba, Zazu were all fine. The remember me scene just lol. I would've been shocked about other parts had I already not seen them ahead of time as well. Do not watch this unless you plan on watching the OG later on to cleanse your mind afterward or you just want a laugh.
Edit: Should mention, what everyone says about the photorealism is true: it looks great. That said, I still don't think its worth it for that (you can see most of it on youtube anyway). The songs themselves are good because the og songs are good. Listen to them, but still, don't watch.
There are exceptions to this of course: Scar, Timon/pumba, Zazu were all fine. The remember me scene just lol. I would've been shocked about other parts had I already not seen them ahead of time as well. Do not watch this unless you plan on watching the OG later on to cleanse your mind afterward or you just want a laugh.
Edit: Should mention, what everyone says about the photorealism is true: it looks great. That said, I still don't think its worth it for that (you can see most of it on youtube anyway). The songs themselves are good because the og songs are good. Listen to them, but still, don't watch.
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Do we actually know that Favreau was "unchecked and unfettered?" I'm legitimately asking, as I don't know. Given how the Disney corporation operates, I would say that it is just as likely that he was specifically instructed to, for example, make this as much of a shot-for-shot remake as possible, and also to make it as ultra-realistic as possible.
Again, I'm not saying you're wrong at all, I'm just wondering if we actually know these kinds of details.
There is no way Favreau wasn't on a tight leash. That's not how Disney operates.
Hell, the original movie was one of the most "liberated" movies of its time that my animation instructor ever worked on because, at that time, nobody thought it was going to be a huge hit. It was made with the B-crew, the "rejects", and the head of the animation department was making fun of it and saying he'd be happy if it "only made 65 million" or something. He said that being overlooked was freeing, because the "A-list" projects were micro-managed and messed with constantly, which is one reason why Pocahontas turned out so poorly (they were working on it at the same time as The Lion King).
Once Lion King became huge, it got Disney's full attention. Every animated film he worked on between The Fox and the Hound and Tarzan was meticulously overseen by Disney head hanchos and producers, with Lion King being one of the few exceptions ONLY because it was the "silly talking animal movie" they were doing as a back-up to their Oscar-baiting Pocahontas film.
Just watched the new movie. It is pretty good overall, im satisfied but there is always room to improve
Im also very impressed with simba and nala's performance. But is it true that simba's talking voice is performed by donald glover, while the singing voice is performed by childish gambino?
Also i really love nala's singing voice. The actress should become a singer, she has that power vocal that is very unique. If she were a singer, she could be famous
Im also very impressed with simba and nala's performance. But is it true that simba's talking voice is performed by donald glover, while the singing voice is performed by childish gambino?
Also i really love nala's singing voice. The actress should become a singer, she has that power vocal that is very unique. If she were a singer, she could be famous
I can confirm this. My great-aunt was an animator at Disney going back to Sleeping Beauty and she would tell us at the time that Lion King was a neglected stepchild, while everyone was internally pushing Pocahontas as the prestige, Oscar-bait project. What you said mirrors what she said 100%. Everyone at Disney was blown away when Lion King ended up as basically their all-time "prestige" film, and Pocahontas was essentially forgotten in comparison.
I assume because why would anyone with any direct knowledge of or actually familiar with The Lion King would let this shit go to these extremes.
Beyonce? Yea she has potential, but maybe she should try it with a group first to find out if that is her true destiny.
The later Eisner years were quite the time for their projects. I don't know how the man found the time to micromanage even half of what he did.
And I'll never get tired of this tweet: