Mulan

Mulan lost its fairytale quality while failing to turn into an epic adventure for the whole family. A lot of scenes are completely unrelated to each other, the characters' motivations and goals change depending on how the film needs it, the action scenes are lousy, and the spectacular battle is downright ridiculous. Yifei Liu isn't charismatic or particularly convincing, Jet Li clearly would have liked to be somewhere else entirely, and Donnie Yen practically doesn't need to be here. And as a bonus, the typically ridiculous Asian pathos. Bad film. And if it really cost $200 million, they should hire some handy auditors at Disney, because it's actually pretty ugly too. The star is for the costumes. (2020.09.03)

This movie lacks not only vision on the part of the director, but also consistency. Scenes strangely jump around a lot and are confusing. The motivations are as variable as the weather. The visual style relies on beautiful locations, but the scenery is a bit makeshift. However, the relationship between the father and daughter works beautifully. Liu Yifei is cute and knows how to act, but the Chinese aces such as Jet Li and Donnie Yen are inexcusably left on the sidelines and are practically unused. If they wanted a realistic version, they should have gotten tougher. Why couldn’t at least the training sequence be as hard-hitting as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin? (2020.10.13)

I approached the live-action version of Mulan with a clean slate, so I decided ("for peace of mind") to watch the original film as well to have some comparison. Unlike the new Jungle Book and The Lion King, the live-action adaptation of Mulan is in many ways different from the animated original, which has its pros and cons. The film's comedic-fairytale line has been replaced, in a rather non-violent way, by a primarily war-drama-action dimension, and there are some changes in the cast of characters (here I very much appreciated the presence of the witch). The film offers some audiovisually impressive sequences (the avalanche or Mulan's encounter with the witch), while the plot is a bit more grounded and at times is too blatantly laced with feminist overtones. On the other hand, I appreciate the camera work and the pleasant musical score. Personally, I think the new Mulan definitely deserves a more favourable assessment. (2020.09.05)

Pathetic. Mulan easily ranks among the worst and most boring Disney movies. There is nothing worth mentioning about this movie. A predictable story, logic holes, zero atmosphere and the whole thing is weirdly cut. Perhaps the worst thing of all is the practically non-existent and unintentionally funny action, where I would expect the creators of a movie about a warrior to really go to town. The battles are almost a parody, and it all feels terribly artificial (I can’t believe this cost 200 million, the comrades from China sure ripped them off). It is neither realistic nor fairytale-like. Let this film be evidence that even with these large blockbusters, custom-made one after another by the big shots at Disney, it does matter who is sitting in the director's chair. After Niki Caro’s poor effort this year, last year’s Aladdin will stand out even more, since Guy Ritchie is in an entirely different league. (2020.09.11)