When this film came out, people were complaining about having to pay 30 dollars to see and being severely disappointed but the film itself. But I just waited a couple of months and now it is available on disney+.
The IMDB synopsis for this film is as follows: “A young Chinese maiden disguises herself as a male warrior in order to save her father.” I honestly feel like it is pointless to explain the plot of this film, seeing as though the original film is so widely known. This is the first live action Disney film I’ve seen, despite the fact that Alladin and The Lion King are on Disney+.
I love the original. I acknowledge that it is far from Disney’s best, but the music is great, the characters memorable, and the message is impactful.
Some of the action sequences are fun, and you can tell that this is a big budget film by the look and cinematography. Aside from that, there is not much that is salvageable. The initial story is different from it’s original source material, and I appreciate when a reboot attempts to go in a different direction. But the direction here is completely ludicrous. The slight change here is that there is a witch. Does she bring a new dimension to the character and story? No. The characters that we knew and loved in the original, have no interesting personality and are extremely disposable. I mentioned that the action scenes were fun, but truth be told they are horribly executed. Some really bad editing involved which makes for some boring fight sequences.
The acting isn’t awful, it is mediocre at best. None of the performances have any sustaining quality. What I was hoping for, for a live action Mulan movie is more of an awareness for Chinese culture and history. This film does so little for the culture, nothing new is to be learned or gained or even respected.
At this point in time I am ranting, these short paragraphs that I have written still don’t express my true feelings for this film. Needless to say, Mulan is a complete misfire. There is no sense of nuance given to the already good source material. Just plain bad.
Cedric Cinema 