Catherine Noyes

4/10 I wasn't expecting a scene by scene reenactment, but I just felt like this was all over the place. I understand the adjustments to make it more historically accurate, and truer to the original story - but it was hard to follow characters. They didn't develop some of them enough who were central to the movie (why did she have a sister - she added nothing) When one of their comrades died, I couldn't determine who it was so I really didn't care. That speaks to the whole question of explaining why they were fighting to begin with. It didn't show to atrocities of war and why they were so passionate about it. It doesn't draw you in to help you understand why this was so important. You don't have the opportunity to be emotionally tied to feel along side with Mulan. Falls flat. The special effects in the fight scenes were more Matrix than reality based. Is she a superhero or human/exceptional warrior? Is she magic? The phoenix isn't real and only until later did I understand that it represented her ancestors. It was a weird special effect. How did she go from struggling to carry the water (which was actually cool to believe she had to work to physically better herself) but then the next minute she was running ahead of the pack. Nowadays we'd assume she was doping not that she unleashed her Qi. Seemed much better in the old movie that she used her brain to shimmy up the pole to compensate for her lack of physical strength. Maybe I'm just dumb. Also, there were so few happy moments throughout the film - needed a bit more joy sprinkled in there. We had 5 teenage girls waiting for a month to watch this and everyone ended feeling like "what did I just watch?" when it was over. On the plus side, the acting was wonderful - she really was believable as Mulan. I loved the strong message of truth and family. The scenery was spectacular. Also - where's grandma?!! I loved her!