Mufasa: The Lion King (2024)

Score: 3 / 5

Remember when Disney made sequels to its major animated features as direct-to-home-video flings? We all had one we liked. With few exceptions, we can all agree most of them were "bad," and while I generally don't use or approve of such evaluative words, I do agree that most were subpar technically and artistically in most aspects of their existence. Some are still fun, though, and a select few include some really brilliant moments. The Lion King was no exception to the Disney sequel tradition, spawning in addition to the Timon & Pumbaa television series, The Lion King II: Simba's Pride in 1998 and The Lion King 1½ in 2004. While The Lion King (1994) is simply not a favorite of mine (the stage musical far surpasses it in my esteem), its sequels are surprisingly among my preferred of the period. They include music and characters and humor that adds to my appreciation of the original rather than detracting or taking the material in a weird new direction.

Mufasa: The Lion King is in a similar vein, marking the first sequel to a Disney live action remake of a classic since (and I could be wrong here) 102 Dalmatians in 2000. The origin story of its title character, it's curious this is the film Disney chose to make after the passing of James Earl Jones, to whom they notably dedicate this picture. Young Mufasa learns about Milele, a mythical paradise which his small pride hopes to find, from his beloved parents (Anika Noni Rose and Keith David), from whom he is violently taken (and effectively orphaned) by a sudden flood. Saved from hungry crocodiles far downriver by another young cub named Taka, Mufasa is adopted into another pride, this one run by King Obasi (Lennie James). Obasi wants nothing to do with the outsider, but his son Taka and Taka's mother Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) care for him and raise him to be a conscientious and helpful leader in the pride. Cared for by the females, he learns to hunt and provide for the males.

While hunting, Mufasa and Eshe are attacked by two white lions, Mufasa killing one. The other escapes to its own pride of albino outcasts, led by Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), whose son is now dead. Vowing revenge, Kiros leads the white lions to slaughter the royal pride. They do, with Mufasa and Taka barely escaping with their lives. Together, they work to find the lush oasis of Milele and live in peace with their new friends Sarabi (Tiffany Boone) and Rafiki (John Kani). But Kiros still hunts for them, and a final battle looms, fated, to determine the true king of... well, the Serengeti, I guess?

Much like the original classic, this story has the hallmarks of mythic storytelling and functions according to the logic of both fables and tragedies. As an origin story and personal trauma drama, Mufasa is an affecting if archetypal tale told with conviction and resonance. As a franchise entry -- following the "live action"-esque 2019 remake -- it adds some new lore and characterizations that I found fun and thoroughly entertaining. As a standalone film, however, this movie never quite reaches beyond itself and often feels a bit lost in its own visual splendor, a problem that plagued its predecessor. A few new musical numbers -- penned by Lin-Manuel Miranda, who I wish would just stop -- tend toward the forgettable, even if they do add some charm to the film's occasional doldrums. And as fan-service for a company seemingly doubling down on making money over telling worthy stories, Mufasa is pretty great, especially if the kid in you always wanted to know why Pride Rock looks the way it does, how Scar got his name and his wound, and why a possibly insane mandrill would bless a lion's cub.

Various elements will work for different audiences, and your endurance will be tested regardless. Visually, the whole thing is stunning, and frankly the ingenuity and shock of Kiros and his albino pride had me audibly gasping in the auditorium multiple times. Then again, the misadventure our heroes take through a snowy mountain pass felt forced and strange as far as spectacle goes, and made me want to look at a map for snowy mountain ranges in that region. In terms of voice acting, there's not much joy here, especially with the childish and wholly unnecessary framing story of Simba and Nala's daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) being scared by a thunderstorm and told the story of her grandfather by Rafiki while Timon and Pumbaa (Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen) recite an obnoxious series of low-brow jokes about bodily functions and Disney's legal department. But Mikkelsen is a welcome voice here, bringing suitably sly menace to a character not dissimilar from the villain we know and love, and the two leading stars (Aaron Pierre as Mufasa and Kelvin Harrison Jr. as Taka) carry the film capably.

What does work exceptionally well is director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight, If Beale Street Could Talk, The Underground Railroad), who was by no means in his element here. His work in American life is almost forgotten in this fantasy African realm of pseudo-realism, but the high-tech and enormous budget don't seem to scare or overwhelm the veteran auteur. His regular cinematographer James Laxton shoots things with a patience and interest that can only have been bred in real-time hands-on interaction with real actors physically embodying the lions in physical proximity. What is surely the state of the art will be revealed by others, but mark me: when inside details about how this film was created are clarified, movies will change for the better. Much like Peter Jackson's groundbreaking work on Gollum (and other creatures) in The Lord of the Rings, there is technology here that will pave the path forward to more realistic digital characters rooted firmly in live performances by actors. And Laxton draws us in with gentle and graceful approaches, which is not the norm for this studio, this genre, or this age. He makes you want to breathe deeply to experience this beautiful world through your other senses.

And while I wouldn't even say this is the best example of photorealistic moviemaking from Disney -- that accolade must still bejewel the crown of The Jungle Book -- it does improve upon The Lion King by treating its characters like actors rather than like animals who inexplicably dance and sing, choosing now to let them emote and express in increasingly accessible ways. I don't really like all Miranda's new music, but Jenkins makes them more interesting by staging and dramatizing them the way he does. In fact, I'd be interested to see if a film like this launches Jenkins into more mainstream fare, and I enthusiastically agree with a rumbling I read somewhere that he'd do well to direct a film adaptation of something like the Broadway hits Hamilton or Once on this Island. Jenkins isn't able to control the story here, and does feel a bit railroaded into his lane, but his choices within what is under his control are brilliant and help the movie rise above expectations set by what came before. The film pulses with energy and with artistry, and I couldn't look away from its splendor, even when studio and IP constraints threatened to bore me.

The Midnight Sky (2020)

Score: 1.5 / 5

I'm so glad to say George Clooney is back to acting after four years, but I wish it wasn't in this movie. Playing a post-apocalyptic scientist named -- I can't believe I'm typing this -- Augustine Lofthouse, Clooney has elected to remain on a dying Earth after some unidentified crisis in 2049. Yes, the date is a bit too soon, and yes, it brings to mind Blade Runner 2049 along with scores of other ambitious science fiction movies. He discovers that a space station called Aether is on its way back to Earth from scouting out a new planet for humans to inhabit. Determined to stop them and send them back to the new Earth, Augustine can't get his radio signal to work properly, so he is forced to find a better means of communication. Despite Augustine trekking across the Arctic with only a little girl for company -- little Iris, bless her, is mute and just not the best conversationalist -- the movie never really feels very urgent on this front. Sometimes technically impressive, and with the bones of a decent survival thriller, but bloodless and trite in practice.

Thankfully, there's a parallel story happening on board the Aether. Led by a pregnant Felicity Jones (I think they all had character names, but I didn't catch or retain any) and her partner David Oyelowo, the team including Tiffany Boone, Demian Bichir, and Kyle Chandler have to navigate their way home despite several obstacles that, oddly, mirror the threats faced by Augustine. The hint of horror, though, apart from drifting away into space or getting smashed by asteroids, is that they do not yet know that Earth is now uninhabitable. Oddly enough, the scenes in space held my interest better than Clooney in the snow, mostly due to the camaraderie of the crew and some excellent cinematography by Martin Ruhe (Hulu's Catch-22 and The American).

Realistic complications of both dire situations are almost nonexistent in this movie, and the new threats often feel as irrelevant as the unnecessary exposition, presented to us in unwelcome and sloppily interspersed flashbacks dripping with sickly sentiment. It's not even really character-driven, making these scenes feel spliced in from another movie altogether. At least, that is, until the climax, when a bizarre twist is revealed in soapy, melodramatic fashion that made me feel irredeemably cheated. I don't know how or why Clooney attached himself as director to this project, but he usually works harder to tell worthwhile stories.

Even the scenes that generated in me the most interest and excitement feel copied from other, better science fiction features, especially in a scene when the astronauts are working outside the Aether and run into an asteroid field. It's got Gravity written all over it, even is Alexandre Desplat's uncommonly overwrought score makes it feel a bit different. Ultimately, I can't help but feel that the film was, at best, a couple interesting ideas that the screenwriting committee decided to string together with facile plot threads. Characters are dull, the action isn't novel, and whatever control over narrative Clooney has is wasted across various focal points that can't integrate. If a movie like this makes you want to watch Interstellar or The Martian or even Titan A.E. instead of considering it on its own, it's not worth a watch. No matter how great the cast list may be.