This thread is for the discussion of the new 2019 TLK movie, it will contain spoilers regarding the new movie so don't continue reading if you wish to avoid those.
SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!!!
Pat and I saw the movie on Wednesday (it's now Friday) so I've had a couple of days to think about it since viewing. Pat and I had extremely different responses to the movie, he absolutely loved it, it made him emotional, he loved the visuals and the voice acting. I was underwhelmed by it. The movie ended and I felt like I'd missed almost all connection with it. Did I like it? Yes. But it didn't really move me, and I certainly didn't love it.
Visually it is beautiful, there's a lot to like about it and admire, and some scenes just had me going "wow" with how real they looked. That being said, I felt a very strange disconnect with lions that look almost real, but not quite, and I struggled to connect emotionally with them. I felt scar was the best lion character by far, and I did find the few little story changes regarding him quite interesting, I felt like his approaching the hyenas after the elephant graveyard scene was a nice touch, it made the hyenas strong villains of their own and I felt played on the original soundtrack not included in the movie where Scar says "I never thought hyenas essential, they're crude and unspeakably plain, but maybe they've a glimmer of potential, if allied with my vision and brain."
Scar was a good villain, I felt threatened by him, the moment eally on where cub Simba goes to visit him after seeing the Pridelands and says something along the lines of "just think, one day I'll be the one ordering you around" and Scar's face is looming behind the joyful naive Simba was quite powerful to me.
I really wanted to like Zazu, but the voice acting sounded like every line was shouted and I found it difficult to like. I was very pleasantly surprised by Timon and Pumbaa, I thought they had a great dynamic and it was easy to get caught up in that. They did such a great job with "the lion sleeps tonight" I nearly jumped out of my chair when Nala appeared :lol: I really loved that part, when they started singing I thought "I wonder when Nala will appear" then I got so caught up in the moment that I completely forgot about her, which was obviously their intention and it worked so well.
Otherwise I'm not sure what to say, I wasn't moved by Mufasa's death at all (really disappointed about that, as that is such a key moment), and I felt Simba as a character gets buried beneath the movie as a whole.
So while I enjoyed the movie, it was nothing like I expected in terms of my reaction. I'm not disappointed or upset, I'm not overjoyed and loving it, it's just kind of...meh. A reaction which I myself don't really understand. Having said that I am going to see it twice more, haha. Once with a friend who's desperate to see it and another time with Pat because we think we got a crappy cinema in regards to their projector technology, it just didn't look as good as it should have I don't think and the frame rate seemed pretty poor.
I don't think I'm ever going to love it, but I do think it will grow on me with a few more viewings and I'll be able to really enjoy it. It's hard to watch a movie and disconnect from the original, that will definitely get easier with future viewings.
So that's me, on the plus side I'm loving new merchandise, though its bad for my bank account. I got a nice throw rug at the cinema and they had nice metal popcorn buckets but I didn't get one :D
I'm really interested to hear everyone else's views, gong to love discussing it more :)