Henry L.

Terribly disappointed. In short: No singing, no character development, terrible plot, terrible dialogue, and very questionable cultural accuracy. What a waste of some very good casts... Starting from the very beginning till the very end, I wondered what ethnicity Mulan was. There’s more than one ethnicity than just Chinese in China in case people didn’t know. Then I wonder if this was just completely fictional and independent from the origin. Feels better to think about it that way. The battle scenes and the fight scenes were poor. I mean, you got two of the best martial art movie stars on the cast, it could have been much much much better. And no realism... for kids? The characters... felt like no one really mattered. And Mulan was the hero because of... the plot required her to? Did not feel anything for any of the characters. Some plot twists (if we can even call them twists) were really forced... Really felt like there were little thoughts put into the plot and characters. It was either lack of research in writing or terrible cuts. And did they put in Qi just because it's Chinese? And the "mystical elements", such as pheonix, felt like stupid people tatooing random words they don't understand. The special effects and the filming techniques felt amateur. I think even a lot of the Youtubers can do better with low budget. Where did the money go? 200 million, was it? It’s not about race. But having a mostly white crew - director, producers, writers, costume designer... (you look it up) It does make a bad excuse for a poor job on an Asian film. I did feel like, “oh wow, seriously?” But I also know that it’s not about race, it’s about these people not doing enough homework and study enough on something that was not theirs but they would need to present. And the biggest disappointment for my Disney-loving friends - no singing; barely any music, in fact. There are several short instrumental versions of Reflection and then some other songs. And one of the Reflection that was featured during the credits was in Chinese sang by the lead actress... so you know it's not the actors. To be fair, I feel like it would have been alright like 20-30 years ago, except the music part (Disney movie with so little music... really?) But in the age of information. A lot of standards have been raised (story, plot structure, film techniqes, special effects, etc.). And for a live action film, details matter even more (origin, references, performances, design, etc.) My friend made an interesting comment, "they should have gotten the director of Crazy Rich Asian to do it."

Very disappointed. Started high and only went down from there. The world/setup was very exciting. Maybe I expected too much. I could barley like any of the main characters. A lot of inconsistencies... such as the characters’ intelligence and skills, plot, etc. Some episodes felt like the budget was low and they needed to make them just to make the numbers - pretty much pointless to the main plot. Things dragged on for no reason. Some actions really could have been better... looked like some actors didn’t finish trainings. ... What it comes down to is how I can’t stop feeling annoyed while watching and would not recommend. Personal opinion.