Sarah Dillard

I loved it! A fun absurdist romp, reminiscent of the ‘80s Leslie Nielsen movies. As someone who grew up in the Midwest, I thought the characters were perfectly acted and dressed. I found the cameos fun and silly, and enjoyed how over the top the movie was. It’s very different from bridesmaids-they went for a much more absurdist, feel-good tone. The perfect fun movie to watch in quarantine! I’ve already sent my mom(a Midwestern Trish herself) several clips of the movie and she can’t wait to experience the zany Trish worship herself

6/10 This movie is a Xianxia movie, not a Disney movie. Mulan starts off strong and is able to use magic(Qi; for Western audiences, think of it like the Force from Star Wars) even as a child, but hides it out of fear of being seen as unfeminine. Now, there’s a way to tell this story well, but starting from absolute battle perfection is... not it. Even when she goes to train with the other soldiers, she hides her qi until she finally decides that everyone else should see how perfect a swordswoman she is. Again, fine a Xianxia power fantasy of a novel/movie, but not exactly the stunning example of character growth expected from a children’s movie. The battle scenes were, quite frankly, atrocious. She literally deserts the main force in pursuit of a small contingent of enemy soldiers, only to return and stand in the center of the battlefield, watching her friends be hit with flaming cannonballs, for literally two minutes. Finally, she somehow teleports behind the enemy force, collecting spare armor along the way, and manages to set up a convincing fake army in the span of ten seconds. After causing the avalanche, Mulan RIDES A HORSE THROUGH THE RAMPAGING SNOW. Honestly, they should have gone full Xianxia movie and just had her fly on her sword. She’s magic. It’s more believable. Another thing about the Qi; it makes Mulan an unlikeable protagonist. Let’s use the example of the soldiers having to carry buckets of water up the mountain without spilling a drop; when she doesn’t use her Qi, she’s the absolute worst in her group at this. Which makes sense, and I was excited to see her character actually struggling to build muscle for once. But then, in the very next scene, she uses her Qi to easily climb the mountains with the two buckets, surpassing all the men. I truly felt that using magic in this scene was cheating. In the original animated film, Mulan used her mind to climb to the top of the flag pole, but she didn’t cheat! Finally, the movie tries to force a romance between Mulan and one of her fellow soldiers. It fails, horribly. She’s incredibly rude and standoffish to him(which again, I’m fine with; she’s hiding a big secret and doesn’t want to be close friends). But then, at the end, they’re suddenly in love with each other despite Mulan literally acting horrendously to him every time she sees him. The romance went from 0-100 in about ten seconds flat. The very best thing about the movie was the female antagonist, a powerful witch. Mulan honestly was more friendly and had better chemistry with her than with her fellow soldier. I kept joking with my husband that I hoped the movie would end with them running off to start a magical school for witches together. Watch it if you have time, but I can’t recommend it for kids. I was bored as an adult. I think kids would fall asleep at certain points