The Lion King (2019) - Film Review
Screenplay: Jeff Nathanson
Directed By: Jon Favreau
Certificate: PG
While live-action Disney remakes have gradually been appearing in cinemas for several years now, 2019 seems to be the year where they come out in force. In just the past five months, live-action adaptations of 'Dumbo' and 'Aladdin' have surfaced, and now we have a third with 'The Lion King'. Disney's track record with these remakes is sketchy to say the least, with some such as 'The Jungle Book' actively improving on the animated original, while others such as this year's 'Dumbo' and 'Aladdin' have only been serviceable at best. With such inconsistent quality, 'The Lion King' is time for Disney to prove that these remakes are actually worth it.
Following the same plot as the 1994 animated film, in the Pride Lands of Africa, young lion cub Simba is next in line to the role of king over the animal kingdom. Seeking the throne for himself, Simba's uncle, Scar, plots to kill Simba and the current king, Mufasa. When a trap laid by Scar results in Mufasa's death, Scar convinces Simba that he was responsible, sending the young lion into exile. With the help of friends old and new, Simba must learn to embrace who he is, and put an end to the tyranny of his uncle.
Unfortunately I came away from seeing 'The Lion King' with a very mixed opinion of it, and for plenty of reasons I'll get into. But I want to look at the good stuff first, and what I thought worked about this remake. If there's something I can't fault no matter how much I try, it's the insanely good work of the many VFX artists that worked on this film. Near enough every shot feels less like something that was filmed on a Los Angeles blue screen stage, and more like an ultra-realistic painting. You could take a still from almost any moment in the film and frame it - that's just how stunning the world these artists have created looks. I also really enjoyed Hans Zimmer's new music score. The actual songs themselves are fine, but it's the incidental music that mostly stuck out to me. Zimmer scored the 1994 'Lion King' and you don't need me to tell you that he's revered in the world of cinema for good reason. He can still impress with new and updated compositions twenty-five years later. One track in particular I absolutely love is 'Stampede' - the music heard during Mufasa's death. It takes cue from the original but infuses it with even more bombasity and dramatic weight to become possibly my favourite bit of movie score so far this year.
But these are the few good things I have to say about 'The Lion King' because the music and breathtaking VFX end up being service to a considerably hollow adaptation of the 1994 film. The art style of the 2019 'Lion King' shows an unwavering commitment to hard realism. Every character and visual is designed with the goal of being as realistic as possible. Sadly this approach means that one of the strongest aspects of the animated original is missing - visual storytelling. Below is a side-by-side comparison of the scene where Scar brings Simba to the gorge to practice his roar. In the animated version, you can see how the character designs reveal information visually. From his appearance and pose, Scar is sly, cunning and intimidating, compared to Simba, whose expression is much more innocent and blissfully unaware of the danger his uncle presents. In the live-action version, all you have is two lions looking at each other, with neither of them emoting in any perceivable way. No narrative information is given visually - there's just no soul to it. Now the go-to defence when anyone argues this is: "Well it's live-action - they're supposed to look like that". This is true, but even lions in real life emote more than this, and heck, the animals in the 2016 'Jungle Book' were more expressive than this.
The characters in 'The Lion King' emote so little that it's hard to enjoy moments that are supposed to feel tense or dramatic, or funny and light-hearted. The hard realism of 'The Lion King' acts a disservice to it. For instance, Simba's return to the pride and his confrontation with Scar feels decidedly underwhelming. All the stops are rightly pulled out to make it feel as dramatic as possible, with everything on fire around the two characters (though admittedly the use of colour here is nowhere near as vivid or impressive as the animated version). But when Simba and Scar fight, being heavily backlit by the intense flames around them, I honestly lost track of who was who. When backlit by fire, the character designs proved so similar that I couldn't tell them apart. This is all really disappointing when you remember that the creative team behind 'The Lion King' is very similar to the team that worked on the vastly superior 'Jungle Book' remake.
Even on a story level, the 2019 'Lion King' doesn't decide to improve on the original, and this is probably where there was the biggest opportunity for improvement. Again, this is something the 'Jungle Book' remake managed, taking the animated 'Jungle Book's barely existent narrative and crafting a cohesive story out of it. While I really enjoy the original 'Lion King', it has its share of problems too, one of the most notable for me being the underdeveloped romance between Simba and Nala. This is something that could've been fleshed out considerably more in this remake, but it feels equally as glossed over. There's little excuse for it either, when you consider that the animated film is just short of 1hr 30mins long and the remake is slight under a full 2hrs long. While the animated film felt well-paced, tight and snappy with its runtime, the new film feels overly long with scenes that feel drawn out and as though they could've been edited out completely. Ironically, the film is longer but has less going on.
Thankfully the voice cast are a little better, though with a few weak links here and there. James Earl Jones reprises his role as Mufasa from the animated film, and it's understandable why they decided to keep him onboard. His voice hasn't lost any of its command and he does just as good a job this time around. The rest of the characters however are portrayed by new voice actors, probably my favourite of them being Chiwetel Ejiofor as Scar. While he doesn't top the silky maliciousness of Jeremy Irons, I did enjoy this less exaggerated version of the character. Seth Rogen and Billy Eichner are also well-cast as Pumbaa and Timon, with Eichner in particular providing most of the film's laughs. Unexpectedly the weak links of this cast are Donald Glover and Beyoncé (and yes I realize saying that won't have made me very popular). While their presence is great for the film's advertising campaign (especially Beyoncé), neither of them sound particularly enthusiastic in their roles. Yes their voices are instantly recognizable, and the singing is great of course, but when it comes to actual dialogue, it falls flat. This isn't helped by the lack of emotion in the lions' faces, nor does it help Simba and Nala's already undercooked romance.
I can't deny that 'The Lion King' was disappointing. Even without being a die-hard fan of the original, I was tentative going into it thanks to a hit-and-miss advertising campaign and mixed early responses. But I really did want to like it. After all, it's directed by Jon Favreau, a man who's produced some fantastic films, and coming from a similar creative team that gave us 'The Jungle Book', which I really enjoyed. But rather than the kind of quality we got with 'The Jungle Book', 'The Lion King' turns out to be another of the more underwhelming live-action remakes. It's hardly the worst thing ever, but it's another mediocre entry to both Disney's output and the Summer 2019 movie landscape. This 'Lion King' makes for a pretty trailer, but not a 2 hour film.
The Lion King
5/10
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