Ah, the much anticipated live action Aladdin reboot. The story is familiar, so I won’t bore you with an unnecessary synopsis and instead just cut right to it.

I was pleasantly surprised by Will Smith, who paid homage to Robin Williams’ iconic genie character, but who also took the role and made it his own. I was less impressed with Jafar who, unlike the iconic cartoon baddie, had no real presence or feeling of true evil. He was just a power hungry courtier with no sinister depth.

Likewise, Aladdin himself was a little blah.

The real joy was Jasmine. The impotent, token effort at autonomy the animated Jasmine had in the 90’s has been brought into the present, with all of its alarming backsliding into the veritable dark ages of women’s rights. She has what I’ve come to call a ‘Let It Go moment’; a new song all to herself in which she basically informs the world that she is done being told what to do. I’m glad Disney has stepped up their female character game but, at the same time, the audience is left wondering what purpose Aladdin really serves. His only role in the whole movie is to be Jasmine’s love interest which I would be fine with, except the movie is called ‘Aladdin’! Jasmine completely steals the show and makes him a footnote in his own story.

Actually, the more I think about that the happier I am about it.