There has been a lack of hype for this film, & a lack of press for it too. But here i am the friday before christmas, ready to go watch a live action remake which is a prequel of a film that was never a cartoon. & i hope that sounds as batshit crazy as it actually is, because thats what it is. Its time to see how Mufasa ended up becoming a legend.

Pretty decent showing if im honest, considering you know its literally days away from christmas. Id say the 6pm showing was half full. It was mainly millennials, but there were a few families in there with older kids around the 10 to 14 age, im impressed.

Trailers, Captain America, dogman (that looked odd) Sonic (which comes out tomorrow) & We live in time (im always amused this is before kids films).

& then the film started… Well it was pleasant, & nice but i dont think we needed it.

Why did i not know my mate Mads was in this & that not only was he a voice in it but he was the bad guy. He was so cool. His lion was so menacing. However there was one issue, he had a song. The song was catchy but it was meant to be menacing & moody & before something very tragic & what was i doing, laughing. The man who was so nice to me was singing a villain song. I couldnt hold it together. Im sorry. But he did have a good song & when he was on screen he was a bad guy, but there wasnt enough of him for you to care. Im sorry but its true. I know i always want more Mads but even a casual person would want more Mads than we got.

Where was John Oliver? Was he to expensive a second time around? Especially when we have some of the returning cast from last time, how hard would that have been.

I do like the James Earl Jones Tribute, that was rather lush & i welled up a bit. It had to be done. Well done disney for doing that right.

So in the Lion King Timone & Pumba, iconic, hilarious, including in the first one. This one, they pissed me off. We didnt need to keep leaping back to them, it was so irritating. Let Rafiki tell the story to Kiera (blue Ivy was good by the way all things considering) & maybe go back twice durign the story, not every time a scene ends. It pissed me off a lot.

We improved on the CGI with the animals emotions this time, there was more faces being pulled & it wasnt just straight like the last one.

Im sorry but Scar was so right to be pissed off about it all. I mean i get Mufasa never asked for any of it, but his nature made him that, so of course this was going to happen. Also the fact he gave him the name was a bit harsh.

There was a CGI skyfall moment which had me laughing.

The story will never live up to the original, because lets be honest the Lion King is perfect. ITs songs were pretty good, but other than bye bye & hes my broooovvvvaaaaaa i cant sing any of them to you. The score at some points really was emotive for the scene it was setting up especially at a potential stampede & flooding moment. I think a sequel 30 years in the making could have been fleshed out a little bit more if im honest.

Im going to be honest there were 3 points where i looked at my watch going how much longer, it was only when we got to Pride Rock that i was like oh thank fuck for act 3. It was becoming a bit bland & not boring at points, not a good thing for a disney big budget film.

Did we need this film? Nope
Did it kill time? Yes
Is anyone really going to remember this in 30 years time like the original? Nope
It was pleasant but isnt going to set the world on fire. It just needed more passion & less flashbacks & more engagement & it could have been something good.