It should come as no surprise that Barry Jenkins’ dull and uninspired “Mufasa: The Lion King” isn’t a good film. If anything, it confirms our worst fears about Jenkins having, temporarily, sold out to corporate product. Hey, at least he’s learned his lesson and has vowed to never again embark on such a misbegotten VFX-heavy project (“It’s not my thing”).
Yes, the review embargo has lifted and, for the most part, ‘Mufasa’ is not being well received by critics. I actually expected reactions to be far worse than this, but as it stands, the film has a 59 on Metacritic (based on 26 reviews) and 53% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Jenkins has been accused of “selling out” after hopping onboard this movie, and he’s shot back at his critics, a few times, including more recently on his social media. A few weeks ago, he finally gave in and admitted defeat.
Regardless, Jenkins is now be going back to the drawing board. There’s a good possibility he will next be directing a biopic about choreographer Alvin Ailey for Searchlight. Unlike ‘Mufasa,’ it will certainly not be VFX-heavy, nor will it have a budget of $250M+