Mulan (2020) Review

 

Mulan is a action drama and a live-action remake of the 1998 animated movie of the same name. Both of which are based on the Chinese folklore "The Ballad of Mulan". The movie is produced by Walt Disney Pictures, Jason T. Reed Productions, and Good Fear Productions and distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. Mulan is written by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek, and Elizabeth Martin and directed by Niki Caro.

The story is the Emperor of China has received news that an invading army is destroying everything in sight. The Emperor has ordered one man from every family must serve, Mulan's father being one of those men. Due to his health Mulan takes his place, disguises herself as a man, and prepares for war.

Initial Reaction

I was definitely looking forward to this movie back when it had it's March release date. But then Coronavirus happened and it was delayed. Then some good news came when I heard it was coming to Disney+. So my excitement returned and I was fully ready.

Cons

Now with interpretation of Mulan we technically have two villains. Bori Khan and Xian Lang. And their screentime isn't balanced. First we paying attention to Bori and then the story focuses on Xian, then we're right back to Bori. Because of this Xian gets development which would be fine if it didn't come at a cost for Bori. So when it was finally time for Mulan and Bori to fight you ultimately don't care because Bori didn't feel like he was developed enough.

Middle Ground

One thing in the film that could've used more work is the CGI. It's okay but for some shots it really needed more polishing. Another grey area is the acting. Some performances are good such as Jet Li as The Emperor, he was good. Which is saying a lot considering he's not in it that much. Others are okay, that being our main star Liu Yifei as Mulan. There are times when she's okay other times she comes off as wooden.

Pros

Now for the positives, that being it's a different take on the story. There was a few things that make you go "oh, I remember that from the animated movie". But for the most part it is a different story. Which is why I will never understand why people complain it's not like the original. Didn't we complain last year with the live-action remake of The Lion King because it was too similar to its animated counterpart? Another good thing about this version of Mulan is we get some cool location shots. There was quite a few times I paused the movie just to really enjoy them.  The last thing I'll give the movie credit for is the action. I had a lot of fun with those scenes and really that's the best way to describe them, fun.

Mulan's high points are it being a different take, good location shots, and exciting action scenes. Both the acting & CGI was okay. It's lowest point is the villains.

My final rating is Okay

Alright. I'm all done here. Come back on Monday, Sept 7th, because I've got some news regarding my upcoming review of Tenet. Until then enjoy the rest of your day.