Mulan (2020)

Starring: Liu Yifei, Donnie Yen, Gong Li, Jet Li, Jason Scott Lee, Yoson An, Tzi Ma, Rosalind Chao, Ron Yuan, Jun Yu, Ming-Na Wen
Directed by: Niki Caro
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
2020

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: To protect her father, a young woman (Liu Yifei) disguises herself as a male soldier to fight to defend the Emperor (Jet Li).

Review:

Tim: Well, here we are again. Disney once again takes a great animated film- Mulan, this time. And decides to make a significantly less effective live adaptation of it. Someday this travesty will end, but certainly not in 2020. Not much good is happening this year.

Niki Caro's film is decent, but that feels even more disappointing when you realize the original film was truly great. Why would we bother with a watered-down, weak version of a story we've already seen and loved? It makes no sense to me. Caro's film takes a more mature view of this story- it's rated PG-13 and it's filled with battle sequences. There's never any blood (because Disney), but this was actually an interesting premise. What if you took an animated movie like Mulan and made it grittier and more grown up? Cool idea, but it doesn't quite work here. Outside of the battles, the China here looks glossy and filled with color. It's not what you would imagine in a grittier version of the story. Plus, outside of the fights, the movie delivers a number of cringe-worthy moments that would have been bad in a cartoon. Perhaps the worst is at the very beginning. The movie is trying to tell us Mulan is special, so we see her chase a chicken around her small village. Of course, she's leaping and twisting and doing things no child could ever do. Okay, that's ineffective, but fine. Then, she does this ridiculous flip onto the ground and then her staff somehow falls perfectly into her hands. All you can do is groan at the stupidity of this sequence. It's bad filmmaking and there's a number of scenes like this throughout the film.

That's too bad, because the fight sequences are fairly solid. The choreography of the battles is impressive, especially when Mulan is flitting through the air or running along the side of a wall. That's when the film is at its best, but it's not enough to overcome its many challenges. The visuals throughout this film are impressive. You do wish for a bit more grim and dirtiness, but the colors are impressive and the visuals support the story well. The phoenix flying around never looks real, but it does look cool. The cinematography at times was quite impressive.

I felt like the human elements were all lacking. No one seems all that invested in the story or characters. Liu Yifei was solid as Mulan- she gives a strong physical performance. The problem is she never really tugs at our heartstrings. Her performance is too stoic, we don't see enough of her vulnerabilities. There's not enough emotion in her performance. I thought she made a fine Mulan, but never a great one. I loved seeing Donnie Yen here and he adds a strong performance to the film. His role is quite important and it was entertaining him play this role. The same can be said for Jet Li- he's surprisingly restrained in his role as the Emperor, but it was still fun to see him in that role. Tzi Ma gives perhaps the best performance of the film. He showed actual emotion in his performance and leaves a lasting impact. Yoson An adds an effective supporting performance to the mix, too. I also want to mention how much I loved seeing Ming-Na Wen in a small cameo. It felt very honoring to see the original voice of Mulan here. Wen is a fantastic performer, though, and I can't help but wish she was given something more to do. Still, her inclusion was one of the better parts of the film, even if it only lasted seconds. I do appreciate the entire cast was Asian, as was appropriate for a movie like this. Hollywood still has a lot of problems, but they're getting better.

Another issue I had with this film is that it's never as entertaining as the animated film. That one had talking animals and songs, which wouldn't have worked within the context of this movie. But, those things made that movie great. Without them here, this film feels too stripped down, too grim, not enough fun. Maybe I scoffed one time at an attempted joke, but this movie is surprisingly unfunny. It's too serious from beginning to end. It needed more levity.

This film did receive 2 Academy Award nominations, although it was in a muted year with far fewer releases than normal. The nominations for Best Visual Effects and Costume Design felt fairly appropriate. I don't think either was an egregious recognition, as both those categories felt like strengths of this film. However, I don't think the movie ever really contended for either. It's simply not good enough in any sense.

I feel mostly disappointed in this film's final result. It's a decent movie and there's a few things to like, but it's odd to me that a live action adaptation of this story feels less epic than the animated one. This is a story that could have worked on a larger scale, with more focus on the battles. I get it. But, it desperately needed more on the human side- more complex characters, more character development, stronger performances. I don't think Caro is a bad filmmaker, but I believe her movies continually don't realize their full potential. Mulan is fine for a film, but it's no where close to the original film. You just kind of how to wonder, why bother doing this? It's all about the money, but that didn't work so well, with this film being released on Disney+ as the pandemic raged. This was yet another live adaptation misstep.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 6.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Mulan (1998), Pete's Dragon, Aladdin