Disney’s live action remake of Mulan falls far short of its animated predecessor. The beginning of the movie has us jumping around, scene to scene, as it tries to establish its main character, Mulan, as a gifted young girl. Seemingly flying through the air as she chases a chicken around her village, wielding a stick of bamboo like a true warrior, which is all she wants to be. But unfortunately for our main character, combat is not for girls in this society. She is expected to be silent, poised, beautiful, and to honor her family by marrying, things Mulan wants no business in.
The first jarring thing about this movie was that they tried to create a “midichlorian levels” explanation for her talents. Similarly to Anakin, Mulan has been gifted very high Chi levels. The first 30 minutes of the movie mentions it multiple times and the theme continues throughout the movie. I’m not sure why they went down this path. Why couldn’t she just have worked hard and been just as good if not better than the Men, as she does in the animated movie? That was the heart of the original. Mulan was headstrong and against the quiet wife role, but she also wanted to honor and protect her family. So instead of losing her crippled father and marrying a random guy, she hides who she is and puts herself through military training and war, eventually overcoming those gender norms. In the live action remake however, we get someone who’s better off in the Marvel universe. It actually would have been more of a crime if she didn’t help everyone with her powers.
Mulan is not the only one gifted with high Chi levels though. Xian Lang, the woman who helps the villain of the story, is described as a witch. Apparently, Chi has gifted her witch like powers, such as shapeshifting, and possession. Mulan seemingly could develop these powers if she were to join forces and learn from her. It’s just very strange to throw all of this into the Mulan story.
The movie just lacks all feelings. Things the animated movie did so well, (show Mulan’s emotional decision to take her fathers place in the army, the humor of her hiding the fact she’s a woman while living with all men, the bonding between her and the other soldiers, and ultimately earning their respect) were all missing here. There’s no real villain, which would be fine as it’s a story about Mulan, but it also doesn’t give Mulan any real chances to grow, which is most likely because she’s already a superhero. The movie is left without an antagonist and with a hero we care nothing about. The witch has a better story arch here, but of course even that ends abruptly and eye-rollingly cliched.
What we are left with is a movie that feels far too long but also feels like nothing happened at all. It seemed like they wanted to write a Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon movie but use Mulan as a backdrop. They already had enough wire stunts and Kung Fu, they should have just scrapped the Mulan idea and made a Kung Fu movie instead, (I mean they already have IP Man in it). I found myself thinking more about how many other people have high Chi levels in this world. Maybe Disney has a potential superhero show spin off?
