Malee Yang

I was so hyped up when I first heard there was going to be a live-action Mulan. Being Asian-American myself, I was so excited to finally see some more films with a main Asian cast being displayed on the big screen. I was even more hyped up when I learned that one of my favorite Chinese actress, Liu Yifei, was going to play Mulan. But I was highly disappointed. Let me tell you why: 1. Terrible plot- the plot does not flow well. Things just happen and there are many inconsistencies. The witch did NOT contribute anything to the movie at all. The movie would've been the same without her. There was no tension at all and the dialogue was VERY CLICHE. I expected there to be more tension especially when I heard that Disney was going for a more historically accurate plot. I expected the film to be filled with tension and deeply motivated characters. 2. Too fast-paced- I felt like the movie moved WAY too FAST. It didn't give enough time for us to get to know the characters and get attached to them. I did not feel any sort of attachment to any of the characters nor their motivation. The climax scene is probably one of the MOST anti-climatic scenes I've ever seen. They spent so much time building the "story" up that they had to shorten the climax of the movie. 3. Shallow characters- I LOVE the cast for this movie but their characters do not give them an opportunity to shine. I found parts where I was cringing because of how cliche and cheesy the dialogue was. You don't get to know anything about the characters other than their role. Like Mulan's mother was just her mom, her sister is scared of spiders and the soldiers are just soldiers. I did not know any of the soldiers' names until way later on because they never showed how Mulan became acquainted with them. Even Mulan was underdeveloped. She was nothing more than your typical badass knows-how-to-fight female lead. She doesn't show any character development whatsoever and there's nothing about her that makes her Hua Mulan. Some things I liked: the action scenes were probably the only thing that sort of saved the movie. We see a lot of it in the trailers and that's what made it exciting. The cinematography was absolutely GORGEOUS and really brought out the beauty of the setting. I really wished they added some historical Chinese music to fit the setting of the movie though. Overall, I did not like this film. To be honest, the TRAILERS WERE BETTER! There was mystery and tension in the trailers that we did not get in the movie. We got 2D characters with no development, a bland plot that added nothing exciting, and an underwhelming execution of the story of Hua Mulan.