MULAN (2020)

MULAN (2020)

Tagline: Loyal, Brave, True.

(Adventure, Drama, Martial Arts Fantasy) [PG-13] 

We are going to make men out of every single one of you!

In this one, the Empire of China is under attack and the Emperor demands that one male from each family in the kingdom rise to defend it. Mulan’s father doesn’t have any sons and he’s too old to fight anymore so she decides to dress up like a dude and go to battle in his place. Of course, this is all against his wishes, but she’s got chi and a magical Phoenix bird on her side, so there’s that. Let’s see how this thing pans out. 

First off, let me say this is NOT a remake of the original MULAN animated movie that Disney put out. No Eddie Murphy dragon, no singing, no goofy crap like that. This movie is a straight-up adaptation of the MULAN story. Now get up out of your Cheerios, wipe away your tears, and try and enjoy the rest of this review. By the way, MULAN is based loosely on a folk tale in the fourth or fifth century, known as the Northern Wei dynasty, which lasted from the fourth through the early sixth centuries AD. I use BC and AD when I mention dates from older movies because it’s correct. Don’t let junk historians or the freakin internet try and change that on you. I also have no idea if the events in the poem based on the folk tale happened because I wasn’t there. 

The acting in this is top-notch and to be honest, I really thought after THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM came out that Yifei Liu (who plays Mulan) was going to be in a bazillion movies and take over Hollywood. I liked her character so much as Golden Sparrow in that movie, that I patterned Julia in my DARK 30 comic series after her. Anyway, she has been active but not in many well-known roles till MULAN. She has some experience doing martial arts type stuff and did 90% of her own stunts for this flick (take that Dwayne Johnson!). Speaking of martial arts, this movie also features Jet Li (one of the greatest martial arts actors of all time) and Donnie Yen (who is “with the force” in ROGUE ONE and is showing no signs of slowing down). I had no idea who Jet Li even played until I read the cast list. Li Gong plays a witch in the movie, even though she keeps saying she’s not. She’s pretty good in the role. The rest of the cast is also solid.

Cinematically this movie is really strong and feels like a large-scale production you would expect from Disney. The score is very strong as well and the pacing feels on par with the storyline. I felt this movie didn’t seem like it was even as long as it’s running time. One really bizarre thing about this movie is its PG-13 rating. Nothing in it at all even remotely seems to warrant that. I would go into this movie expecting to see a PG flick. There, I have spoken. 

We get people flipping around all over the place just climbing walls and doing a quadruple turn around in the middle of the air and kick stuff through people’s chests action. It’s all pretty freakin amazing and reminded me a lot of THE FORBIDDEN KINGDOM. What else could you want? I watched the animated version of this movie in the theaters when it came out and remember not being very impressed. While I am not comparing the two projects to one another this one was better production-wise and I even found myself getting emotional about it, even given all the controversy behind it. When I do my reviews I TRY to just focus on what we got on screen and in regards to this thing, there was a lot of unnecessary critical pounding. I really don’t see what all the cynical chest-thumping was about. I love a "find your place in this world" story. 

I give this movie a solid 5 out of 7. I’d watch it again given the chance. I found this thing very entertaining.

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF WALT DISNEY PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.  

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