Jafar (Aladdin, 2019)



Jafar is the main antagonist of the 2019 film Aladdin, the live-action remake of the 1992 animated feature film of the same name. He is the power-hungry Grand Vizier of Agrabah who plots to become Sultan and destroy the nearby kingdom of Shirabad by acquiring the lamp containing the Genie. He is also based off his original incarnation with the same name.

He was portrayed by Marwan Kenzari.

Why He Sucks

 * 1) He has a drastic personality change from the original. In the animated version, Jafar was known for having a menacing and booming voice. Here, he sounds like a CBD-infused snake oil salesman. Now, he's definitely not the first soft-spoken villain, but the way he says it, he's hard to take seriously even though he's meant to be.
 * 2) He also looks almost nothing like his cartoon self in terms of his costume.
 * 3) His actor, Marwan Kenzari, is terrible in the role and feels very out of place. His parrot sidekick, Iago has been downplayed from a snarky talking loudmouth to an ordinary parrot. Also, his voice actor from the original animated film, Gilbert Gottfried didn't return even though he was still alive.
 * 4) The scene from the original where he transforms into a giant cobra had been cut for some reason, and replaced with him turning Iago giant which isn't nearly as impressive as the former.
 * 5) Several major details from the original had been cut leaving certain plot-holes. For example, the scene where he finds out Aladdin's the "diamond in the rough" from the Sultan's magic ring wasn't in the live-action version, leaving newcomers to wonder how he knew Aladdin was the chosen one.
 * 6) This Jafar also put less of a challenge the previous Jafar did. In this version, he didn't cause all sorts of mayhem in the palace before getting tricked into becoming a genie, and Jafar here seems to get outsmarted much quicker. Granted, the original Jafar also wished himself into a Genie, but he still put up a good fight and was only defeated when Aladdin sealed him in his own lamp. Here, Aladdin never had to move the lamp, and he still got defeated.
 * 7) His backstory, similar to Danzo Shimura's from Naruto, is rather quite petty as he only became evil right after he got imprisoned in Shirabad (the kingdom where Jasmine's mother hails from) & suffered there for years. Heck, even Lady Tremaine's 2015 live-action incarnation had a very proper backstory on why she was cruelly strict and evil to Cinderella by making her do chores and nothing else.

Redeeming Qualities

 * 1) Some people might actually appreciate this version of Jafar, and the fact that he's committed more atrocities than his cartoon counterpart might grab some people's attention.
 * 2) Despite being different from his animated version, he still has the same traits.
 * 3) As the psychopathic, power-hungry villain he is, he's clearly supposed to be hated as such.