But culture issues are far from the greatest issue with this Disney Remake. To put it bluntly, this movie is trash. Not just trash, some of the most insulting trash that Disney has ever had the cojones to charge upfront fees on to see on their streaming service. This one makes Aladdin look like Citizen Kane. It has confusing storylines and morals, ridiculous character motifs and plot points and overall looks like a fanfiction someone would write in lieu of being actually respectable to the myth of the same name. This is, without a doubt (as of 2021), the worst of these Disney Remakes by a wide margin.
Plot: Immediately throwing out the idea that this movie is supposed to be something girls should aspire to be, Mulan begins the movie as basically a kung-fu badass, being able to do impossible jumps and moves as a little girl despite having no skills or training in any of it. Her family disapproves of her being so adventurous and longs for her to be married to a handsome man who will help bring honor to their family. After Mulan fails to win over the Matchmaker, word reaches her village that China is under attack from their enemies to the North under the command of a vengeful warlord named Bori Khan. With every family ordered to contribute one man to the Imperial Army, Mulan is forced to come to the realization that her father would not survive enlistment, as he had a severe leg injury and no sons.
Taking things into her own hands, Mulan disguises herself as a male son of her father, takes his armor, sword and horse and leaves for the encampment to receive her basic combat training (though apparently she doesn't need it in this version). But the training is cut short by the sudden march of Khan's forces. She is ultimately thrust into the heat of warfare as Khan and his sorceress ally Xianniang seek to lay waste to the last defense of China's Emperor. After confronting the Sorceress, Mulan is forced to reveal her identity to her soldier brethren and is ostracized. Mulan is about to return home, when the Khan's forces are revealed to be marching on the Imperial Capital and Mulan must hurry to warn her comrades before it's too late.
What's Wrong?: I never thought I'd say this, but this movie needed some form of levity. Whether that comes from the songs or the side characters, this movie is a stale and boring chore to sit through. Obviously, some humor could have been sprinkled into the movie somewhere (and if it was, I didn't laugh). Movies like these really need to stop taking themselves so seriously. If every single moment in a movie is hellbent on being serious, dark and violent, what's the point of calling it anything more than a historical fiction documentary. Especially considering this is coming from Disney, a company that notoriously blends music and comedy into these kinds of dramatic movies. I mean, I thought he was a terrible attempt to replicate Robin Williams as the Genie, but Mushu was one of the few somewhat bright spots of comedy for the original movie.
One of the strengths of the original animated film was Mulan herself. She's a quirky, flawed, yet fiercely loyal and passionate woman who will not hesitate to sacrifice her own life for her father. And what makes her a stronger character is that she realizes that she took her father's place not just to spare him from fighting in a war he could not possibly survive, but also to prove that she wasn't just a disgrace to her family. And one of the most understandable and relatable moments for Mulan is showing just how much work she put into wanting to be like the other recruits. She isn't automatically some magically gifted kung fu legend. She has to struggle and learn alongside her fellow recruits and build the discipline and restraint needed to be a soldier.
This Mulan is an archetype of a Mary Sue. Automatically good at everything she does with no real explanation, I'm honestly surprised they didn't have her ace the Matchmaker's examination of her to marry her off to some suitor. This Mulan is not a relatable character in any stretch of the word. It's becoming quite annoying to have these ordinarily flawed but well meaning Disney Female Leads being turned into characters far beyond their original depths in terms of development and being turned into character they just weren't in the original. This goes from Belle trying to immediately escape from the Beast's Castle after pledging she would surrender her freedom for his, to Jasmine insisting men like Jafar and her father could not silence her, to Nala constantly making horribly written speeches about how they needed to rise up against Scar and the Hyenas. These characters are not being written as characters, but instead as the worst type of thing one could write: a vessel. She's there to apparently show the strength of women, which is of course a very important thing for little girls to know. Women are strong. Women are talented. Women are smart. And Women can do anything they set their minds to. But they need to put in the work for it, like everyone else. You can't just have these characters be all knowing and all powerful right off the bat. Mulan cannot be a master archer, acrobat and warrior, while also being incapable of being slightly feminine as to be expected of her in those times. Through training and building up her strength, of course she can reach those levels. But without those, it just makes her out to be some kind of demi-god. And we don't need to mistake Mulan for Hercules now, do we?
Like with every one of these films after The Jungle Book, the villains are only slightly more fleshed out than their film counterparts. But Shan-Yu was no Jafar or Ursula. He was a big, lumbering brute that would take no qualms with massacring an entire village just to prove a point to the Imperial Army. In this film, Khan is a slightly more fleshed out version of Shan-Yu, albeit less imposing. When you lose the intimidation factor and give him a very slightly more fleshed out story, you've got a boring villain you cannot get behind as a major antagonist, despite how horrific his plans may seem to Mulan or her comrades. The sorceress, who I guess takes the rank of Shan Yu's eagle, is just another typical feminist message in the form of a character. She actually reminded me a lot of Jailbreak from The Emoji Movie. More of a message than an actual character.
So, when a film fails to develop it's characters, lacks any genuine humor or levity and doesn't know how to show a character becoming strong without making her out to be almost infallible from a very early age, can that make a film possible work?
What's Good?: After spending upwards of 24 hours trying to find some sort of positive thing to say about this film, the one thing I could come up with was the visuals. Like all of the mediocre MCU or the modern Star Wars Films, the only thing carrying this film is it's supreme visuals. The film is shot quite well and the effects blend in fairly seamlessly, at least when it's not Kung Fu Legend Muppet Baby Mulan in the beginning. Some of the animation on the sorceress is well done and the fight choreography at the end is pretty decent. But if I wanted to watch a movie chock full of visuals without any real meaning to them, I'd watch Fantasia.
Overall: When a remake does nothing better than the original, which wasn't even that amazing to begin with, how does this film possibly stand a chance when even the other films have some semblance of what the original movie was going for. Beauty and the Beast tried to be both mysterious and romantic, Aladdin to be endearing and funny and The Lion King tried to be epic and meaningful. They failed on every conceivable level, but at least it was an attempt to recapture some of the magic of the original. Mulan doesn't even attempt that. It's a clustered, awkward mess of a movie that should have been forgotten to time and space. Fortunately, I think people are starting to get the point after all of these nightmarish remakes. The critics are starting to not praise them. The audiences aren't in droves to see them. And we might be finally turning the corner on this. Either that, or Disney is going to double down and make more of these nightmares for us to consume...I hear The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Hercules and Hunchback of Notre Dame are all in the works and they may even try The Black Cauldron and Peter Pan. Oh goodie...
No comments:
Post a Comment