Jenny

There are so many things terrible about this film even without comparing it to the original, but what stood out for me as the worst offenders were the lack of character growth and cultural inaccuracies. This Mulan is shown to be special from the start, as a child she exhibits the ability to fly across roofs and jump down from heights gracefully, and were told it's because she has special "chi". If you know anything about what chi/qi you'll know it's nothing special. It's the energy/life force that flows through all living beings, and it can be strengthened via cultivation, something you'll see frequently in Chinese martial arts/wuxia films. Even the the best martial art masters in these stories started out normal, maybe they had more potential, but they certainly had to work hard to reach a level of mastery. But nope not Mulan, she was special right off the bat, didn't have to work hard for her skills and as soon as she decided not to hold back she was kicking butts left and right? Sorry but what kind of female empowerment message is that? That unless you're born special, you can't amount to anything? What a great message to send to our future generation! I admit the cinematography was beautiful and I enjoyed the action scenes but even those can't save the a mess of a plot. For a movie that's supposedly catering to the Chinese audience, it makes an even bigger mockery of our culture. An advice to Disney, maybe next time actually include a Chinese or even Asian screenwriter so you don't produce something this embarrassing ever again.