Johnny Baxter

I really didn't like the movie. Halle Bailey can sure sing, but her acting was sub par - she was missing that youthful energy that the original Ariel had. As with all modern Disney movies, the leading man is unoffensive, unopinionated, and lacks any meaningful qualities - he's just reacting to the story happening around him, instead of actually making an impact on it. The new musical numbers were downright atrocious, and the old classics were oddly flat and uninteresting, lacking that emotional punch that the 1989 film was able to deliver on. The CGI is average at best, especially for a Disney production with hundreds of millions of dollars behind it. I'm left wondering what exactly the money was used for - because it wasn't the visuals. The few moments of spectacle are drowned out by dark, dreary ocean scenes without a speck of color or style. I get that a super bright and colorful ocean isn't realisitic - but it doesn't need to be for a Disney movie, even if it's live action. The fact that the filmmakers failed to realize this is further proof that this story should have only ever have been told in an animated setting. The non human characters look terrible. Again, the filmmakers wrongly believe that because it's a live action movie, everything needs to look photo realistic. Sebastian, Scuttle, and Flounder were some of my favorite characters as a kid, and the animators did a great job of bringing them to life with goofy facial expressions, witty lines, and talented voice actors. Not only have the new versions of these characters lost that animated charm that made them so likeable, their voice actors fail to bring them to life with the same energy that Samuel Wright and Buddy Hackett did. The result is the characters that are meant to be the most energetic in the story feel strangely lifeless and boring. Finally, Halle Bailey doesn't look anything like Ariel, who is meant to have pale skin with red hair. Why is it so difficult for modern creatives to stick to the source material they've been given? If you want to make a black mermaid, how about you create a new, interesting character with her own worries, weaknesses and strengths, bolstered by a unique story lead by a team of experienced writers. The one downside to that method of filmmaking is that it actually requires talent and creativity - something Disney is short of in the last few years. It's much easier to leach off an existing film and swap a few things around then it is to think of something new. In conclusion, if you want to watch a live action remake that is worse than the original movie in every conceivable way, this is the film for you. If not, stay far, far away.