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Halle Bailey. © 2023 Walt Disney Pictures, Lucamar Productions, and Marc Platt Productions. Directed by Rob Marshall.
Watched it in IMAX @ AMC Theaters
A Classic Disney Film Comes to Life...Again When this project got announced, I was very mixed but it was a different time when remakes weren't that popular but now it's 2023. Different times mean different feelings and going into this film was like entering to a rainforest café but replaced with a Peppa Pig café. However, this film wasn't that bad and after the most recent Disney remakes being completely dogwater, this one was a breath of fresh air. Well, for a moment before I drowned. Let's travel under the seas and see the Walmart version of King Triton's kingdom. Story: The youngest of King Triton's daughters, Ariel is a beautiful and spirited young mermaid with a thirst for adventure. Longing to find out more about the world beyond the sea, Ariel visits the surface and falls for the dashing Prince Eric. Following her heart, she makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, to experience life on land. One of the elements in this remake which surprised me more than other Disney remakes was the cinematography and production design alone. The quality of Disney remakes has gone drastically down due to the lighting, VFX, or poor framing. I'm happy to write that this is a much better visually looking film with some beautiful cinematography in certain scenes and better editing. From Fast X to this film, it's night and day on editing and yes, Fast X was the recent film I saw before watching this film. The pacing of this film wasn't that bad and even though it was over two hours long, it went smoothly. Some of the practical designs like the castle are well-built and there are some VFX and CGI shots that are well-made. However, after watching Avatar: The Way of Water in December, the water VFX distracted me a lot. I'll go more into detail later. Besides the technical elements, the story is honestly, not that bad for a remake. It expands some of the original story and furthers some character development for Ariel while not being too long. It's the same story as the original animated film but the destruction/action sequences are more extended including some of the songs. It's a huge difference in runtime but the pacing overall wasn't that bad. It's a simple story to follow and a hot take, I liked some of the new added context to the plot. Not all of it but some of it like the expansion of the kingdom and having Ariel get used to the kingdom. Especially more time with Prince Eric affects the ending of the film. Those two get more character expansion and it's pretty good. Now the star herself, Ariel played by Halle Bailey is pretty good. I liked her performance, especially during her singing moments in the film. The backlash hurt the film for a bit but she really steals the show in the film. She delivers the emotional scenes well and her version of Ariel is so fitted into this new direction. Overall, this film wasn't a bad remake. However, there are flaws that many remakes carry still to this day.
This film being a remake carries some weight by translating the material into live-action. Some of those elements from the original didn't carry so well to the remake. The first is the story itself. While the story is the same and it was told decently, there are unnecessary scenes and plot elements that dragged its overstayed runtime. The destruction scenes were a bit too long but what kind of killed me off was the dragged time with the side characters. Some of the side characters were uninteresting or just plain bad. Hearing Awkwafina rapping was not what I expected and I wanted it to be over. She's a great actress but she was heavily miscast. While Javier Bardem's performance was good as King Triton, I was heavily disappointed with how they underutilized him and his kingdom looked rough. I mean rough. There's barely anything eye-popping in the sea scenes except Ursula's home.
Ariel's sisters were barely in the film for under a minute which is hilarious. Plus, Ariel's friends were something else, and look how they massacred my boy Flounder. Poor fish. The CGI on him and the other sea creatures was something out of a PS3 game or too realistic to be in a Disney film. It's the same situation with The Lion King remake and the VFX water scenes are very plain. It's good but after watching the Avatar sequel, I can never look at VFX water the same way ever again. The songs themselves weren't that bad but they dragged like hell. Overall, this film still carries the same issues with each Disney remake but this was better than I expected it to be. This being a Disney remake was going to be a risky move but it wasn't that bad overall. It's a solid entry from the bad remakes recently and it was nice to see some creativity within the technical departments and a solid performance from Halle Bailey. However, there were still issues with the story, VFX, and unnecessary stuff that dragged out the runtime. In the end, it's a Disney film and it passed my minimal expectations of a Disney film. Now where's that Bambi remake with the rock? Now Playing in Theaters. Vizeit Score: "B-" (Share this review with your film friends and on social media! Thank you for continuing supporting my indie film website.) Copyright © 2023 Vizeit Reviews / Vizeit Studios. All Rights Reserved. Review Written By: Everardo Garcia Jr. (Chicago Indie Critics Member [CIC])
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