Movie Review: The Lion King

The Lion King was a visually outstanding yet soulless and unnecessary beat-for-beat remake of a Disney classic. What was really the point of remaking an already great movie beyond a drive for profit?

Don't get me wrong. The characters looked insanely real - hence they're calling it a "live action remake" when it's technically not - the visuals were outstanding, and Timon and Pumba were hysterical and probably the best part of the movie, but other than that, I've got nothing.

Part of the main problem was how expressionless the characters looked throughout the entire film. They pushed the animals to look too real that it lost the emotions, personality and energy of the original. The Jungle Book or even the more recent movies of Planet of the Apes also gave photorealistic visuals, but somehow managed to push the animal expressions a bit thus had a greater emotional impact. Heck, Chronicles of Narnia did a lion's emotion much better and that was more than a decade ago.

It was basically watching a bunch of animals out of National Geographic with voice overs, but at the same time, arguably less violent, which was a total disconnect from what you expect these animals would actually react in certain circumstances given how visually realistic the characters looked like.

And don't get me started with the soundtrack. I mean, "Can you feel the love tonight" and yet was played in broad daylight? What? Also, that "Circle of Life" intro was absolutely underwhelming. Was it just me?

The Lion King was just pure hype, which I sadly bought into. If you're into the nostalgia of it all and the visual brilliance, you'd probably enjoy this. However, given that this was clearly a shot-by-shot remake with less impressive execution on just about everything, I'll probably stick to the classic. It's not bad, but no thank you.