After more than six years in the making, The Little Mermaid should be a spectacle for the ages, but even the magic of Rob Marshall (Chicago) and Lin-Manuel Miranda (Hamilton) cannot save the live-action remake. The film feels at once too stunted for an actual musical and too expansive to be just another movie. There's something uncanny, too, in how the humans look underwater and inland so that the wetness of the characters (of all things!) becomes a weirdly icky factor. Not to mention Scuttle the diving bird who looks more like a demonic creature than a feathery companion, or the flat disappointment that is Flounder. If that's the price we must pay for reality, we don't want it.
Synopsis
The youngest of King Triton’s daughters, and the most defiant, Ariel longs to find out more about the world beyond the sea, and while visiting the surface, falls for the dashing Prince Eric. With mermaids forbidden to interact with humans, Ariel makes a deal with the evil sea witch, Ursula, which gives her a chance to experience life on land, but ultimately places her life – and her father’s crown – in jeopardy.
Storyline
The live-action equivalent of Disney's classic tale follows a mermaid named Ariel (Halle Bailey) who yearns to become part of the human world even at the cost of her voice.
TLDR
120 minutes of Halle Bailey singing and flapping her tail would have been better than whatever this is.
What stands out
I've got two words for you: Halle Bailey. Not only does she seem to be the only actor actually acting in the film (sorry, Javier Bardem), but she brings Ariel to heights the 2D animated redhead could never do. Bailey's soft gestures both underwater and on the shore conceal a sharp sense of personal autonomy beyond the sacrifice narrative that's instrumental to the 1989 animated version. Her Ariel is more resolute, more powerful, and decisively more inspiring to young women today, even if the new film remains faithful to its predecessor in many patriarchal ways. But Halle's glorious voice will make you forget that for most of the film and tempt you to sing along before you know it.
not a good movie