Mufasa: The Lion King

It swings back and forth tonally very awkwardly, but there are some thrilling moments and it is Barry Jenkins' usual cinematographer, James Laxton, so it is quite lovely at times. But I wish Jenkins would take his artistry where it is his.

The script is safe and unoriginal, the voice talent is passable and while the scenes of the creatures racing through fields and prancing through canyons are fine, the drama peaks in the water bodies and on snow-capped mountains.

Barry Jenkins took this behemoth and it didn't entirely defeat him.

Young audiences will have fun following the likable characters and their perilous adventures.

The director keeps a firm if predictable hand on the tiller – the action scenes, such as lions trapped in that flooded river and an elephant stampede – are impressive but the script is limp.

Maybe this reads like we’re making excuses, but it feels like the main issues with the film fall beyond Jenkins’ purview as a director...

The circle of life flatlines in this mundane, redundant Lion King prequel which sacrifices charm, heart, and comedy in the pursuit of vanguard visuals.

My enthusiasm for Mufasa was initially low, and it’s only waned with further pondering of its ones-and-zeroes visual non-wizardry and borderline-pointless story.

The prequel to one of the most aesthetically barren major films of the last ten years was always going to have a pretty hard time being anything but aesthetically barren in its own right.

Uninspired and unnecessary.