Even with new Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, Mufasa: The Lion King is solid but not spectacular

The animals and action look incredible and Lin-Manuel Miranda’s songs are just fine, but there is something a bit too familiar about Mufasa: The Lion King.

Fans of the Lion King movies will find plenty to like about prequel Mufasa, but steer clear of a superhero stinker on the big screen this week.

Mufasa (voiced by Aaron Pierre) and Taka (voiced by Kelvin Harrison Jr.) in Disney’s live-action Mufasa: The Lion King.

MUFASA: THE LION KING (PG)

Director: Barry Jenkins (Moonlight

Starring: the voices of Aaron Pierre, Blue Ivy Carter, Mads Mikkelsen, Thandiwe Newton.

Lacking just a little roar power

Disney’s commercial crusade to remake, rebadge or simply remix all the IP sitting on its books continues here in solid, if slightly sterile fashion with Mufasa: The Lion King.

This new effort is a prequel to 2019’s blockbuster hit The Lion King, a photorealistic update of the animated classic of the same name from the 1990s.

In terms of look, feel and sound – there are six or so sudden singalongs penned by the prolific Lin-Manuel Miranda – Mufasa efficiently ticks all the boxes required to hold a familiar formula firmly in place.

The flashbacked tale told here is being related to Simba’s young daughter Kiara (voiced by Blue Ivy Carter), who is most eager to hear all about how her late grandfather Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) became the leonine legend destined to rule Pride Rock.

After a flash flood separates the infant Mufasa from his parents, the resilient cub is rescued by Taka (Theo Somolu), a young lion with a royal future of his own in the offing.

Despite the vocal protests of Taka’s dad, the ostentatiously regal leader Obasi (Lennie James), Mufasa grows to prove his worth to his new tribe by becoming both a brother and mentor to the impressionable Taka.

Sarabi (voiced by Tiffany Boone) in Mufasa: The Lion King.

These two up-and-coming young hunter-warriors make a formidable team – thanks to the watchful eye of Taka’s shrewd mother Eshe (Thandiwe Newton) – until a dangerous threat surfaces that could decimate Obasi’s peaceful reign.

The arrival of The Outsiders, a predatory pride of angry albino lions under the command of the fearsome Kiros (Mads Mikkelsen), forces Mufasa and Taka to undertake a dangerous journey to save their community from near-certain extinction.

While Kiros tracks his every move, Mufasa leads an ever-expanding entourage – which includes the movie’s mandrill narrator Rafiki (John Kani) – in search of Milele, the fabled ‘forever home’ revered by all animals in the wild.

While there is definitely plenty of story available to fill the two-hour running time used up here, Mufasa: The Lion King can sometimes coast along lazily on autopilot mode, echoing the former glories of the first movie without leaving a decisive mark of its own.

The addition of a few too many songs of the same, mildly arresting quality also serves to keep energy levels decidedly low.

Thankfully, the movie does prove its worth with an excellent selection of exciting and inventively shot chase scenes and fight sequences, all of which serve to build the Mufasa character into a truly admirable screen hero.

Mufasa: The Lion King is in cinemas now.

Aaron Taylor Johnson plays the title role in the truly awful Kraven the Hunter

KRAVEN THE HUNTER (MA15+)

General release.

If you’re the kind of Christmas grinch looking to either punk a friend or punish a frenemy, do nothing more than issue an emphatic recommendation of Kraven the Hunter. They won’t have any comeback once this cinematic stink bomb blows up right in their face. This is (hopefully) the last in that polluted stream of Spider-Man-adjacent flicks which have left us lurching from the likes of Morbius, Madame Web and the ever-worsening Venom series. A miscast Aaron Taylor-Johnson (Kick-Ass) grunts, grimaces and mumbles his way through the title role, a charisma-challenged violence-magnet with many fights to pick but few reasons to justify the carnage left in his wake. The one saving grace is an underused Russell Crowe as Kraven’s burly, surly old man, who speaks in a Russian accent so cartoonishly thick that even Vladimir Putin would take offence. Co-stars Ariana DeBose, Fred Hechinger.

Taron Egerton as Ethan Kopek and Dean Norris as Phil Sarkowski in Carry-On.

CARRY-ON (M)

Now streaming on Netflix.

This aggressively entertaining and openly trashy action-thriller is currently the number one movie on Netflix around the world, and it is not hard to see why. The structure is a direct lift from the Die Hard playbook, with the job of saving multiple deaths in a confined setting on the eve of Christmas falling to one bloke, and one bloke only. While lead actor Taron Egerton (of Rocketman and Kingsman fame) doesn’t quite fill the shoes vacated by the great Bruce Willis, the movie itself pays such a relentlessly exciting homage to its inspiration that resistance is near impossible. Egerton stars as Eddie, a rookie security agent who stumbles upon a terrorist threat passing through Los Angeles Airport on the busiest travel day of the year. To make matters worse, Eddie is being forced to ensure a shipment of biochemical weapons will evade detection by his own team. The enemy of the hour is a calmly menacing mercenary (Jason Bateman) who seemingly has every base covered in his plan to poison an entire plane mid-flight. Though logic is not this movie’s strong suit, breakneck pacing and some jaw-dropping set-piece skirmishes staged all over LAX more than cover any perceived shortfall. Just the ticket for anyone after thrills, chills, spills with no deep intellectual commitment required.

Originally published as Even with new Lin-Manuel Miranda songs, Mufasa: The Lion King is solid but not spectacular