The Disney movie seemed to be fairly well received by the first critics yesterday – with a wave of three-and-four star verdicts.
Over the last 24 hours, however, the enthusiasm seems to have dropped – and the film is now stuck with an unwanted ‘Rotten’ score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Movies need at least 60% of their reviews to be classed as positive for them to receive a ‘Fresh’ score on the site.
Any lower, and they’re stuck with the ‘Rotten’ rating – and at time of writing, Aladdin is frustratingly close to the borderline.
It’s currently on 59% on Rotten Tomatoes.
The critics’ consensus reads: “Aladdin retells its classic source material’s story with sufficient spectacle and skill, even if it never approaches the dazzling splendor of the animated original.”
As more reviews are published, it could creep back into ‘Fresh’ territory – especially as it is so close to that all-important 60% threshold.
Its Metacritic score – which takes a look at the specific scores each critic gives, rather than Rotten Tomatoes’ approach of simply seeing if they’re positive or negative – is 54.
This indicates “mixed or average” reviews.
So how does Aladdin square up to other recent Disney live-action stories?
For one, it’s beaten Dumbo: that film was much more comfortably ‘rotten’, with a 47% score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 51 on Metacritic.
Beauty and the Beast fared better: it had a 65 on Metacritc and a 71% on Rotten Tomatoes.
2015’s Cinderella impressed with 84% on Rotten Tomatoes and 67 on Metacritic, while the 2016 retelling of The Jungle Book went down a storm with 95% on Rotten Tomatoes and 77 on Metacritic.
Aladdin should be a box office smash regardless of its reviews: its early screenings indicated that basic word-of-mouth could go in its favour.
It is fronted by Mena Massoud in the title role, with Naomi Scott as a re-imagined Princess Jasmine, and Will Smith as the Genie. Guy Ritchie directs.
Aladdin is out now.