Mulan

Ich bin völlig unbeleckt an die Realverfilmung von Mulan herangegangen und habe daher beschlossen ("damit die liebe Seele ihre Ruhe hat"), mir auch den Originalfilm anzusehen, um einen Vergleich zu haben. Im Gegensatz zum neuen Dschungelbuch und zu König der Löwen unterscheidet sich die Realverfilmung von Mulan in vielerlei Hinsicht von ihrem animierten Vorgänger, was seine Vor- und Nachteile hat. Die humorvoll-märchenhafte Linie des Films wurde auf eine eher ungezwungene Weise durch eine hauptsächlich kriegsdramatische Action-Dimension ersetzt, und es gab auch eine gewisse Veränderung in der Besetzung (hier schätzte ich das Vorkommen der Hexe). Der Film bietet einige audiovisuell beeindruckende Sequenzen (die Lawine oder Mulans Begegnung mit der Hexe), während die Handlung etwas nüchterner und manchmal zu sehr mit feministischen Untertönen durchsetzt ist. Andererseits wusste ich die Kameraführung und die angenehme musikalische Untermalung zu schätzen. Ich persönlich finde, dass die neue Mulan definitiv eine positivere Bewertung verdient. (05.09.2020)

Mulan lost its fairytale quality while failing to turn into an epic adventure for the whole family. A lot of scenes are completely unrelated to each other, the characters' motivations and goals change depending on how the film needs it, the action scenes are lousy, and the spectacular battle is downright ridiculous. Yifei Liu isn't charismatic or particularly convincing, Jet Li clearly would have liked to be somewhere else entirely, and Donnie Yen practically doesn't need to be here. And as a bonus, the typically ridiculous Asian pathos. Bad film. And if it really cost $200 million, they should hire some handy auditors at Disney, because it's actually pretty ugly too. The star is for the costumes. (03.09.2020)

Pathetic. Mulan easily ranks among the worst and most boring Disney movies. There is nothing worth mentioning about this movie. A predictable story, logic holes, zero atmosphere and the whole thing is weirdly cut. Perhaps the worst thing of all is the practically non-existent and unintentionally funny action, where I would expect the creators of a movie about a warrior to really go to town. The battles are almost a parody, and it all feels terribly artificial (I can’t believe this cost 200 million, the comrades from China sure ripped them off). It is neither realistic nor fairytale-like. Let this film be evidence that even with these large blockbusters, custom-made one after another by the big shots at Disney, it does matter who is sitting in the director's chair. After Niki Caro’s poor effort this year, last year’s Aladdin will stand out even more, since Guy Ritchie is in an entirely different league. (11.09.2020)

This movie lacks not only vision on the part of the director, but also consistency. Scenes strangely jump around a lot and are confusing. The motivations are as variable as the weather. The visual style relies on beautiful locations, but the scenery is a bit makeshift. However, the relationship between the father and daughter works beautifully. Liu Yifei is cute and knows how to act, but the Chinese aces such as Jet Li and Donnie Yen are inexcusably left on the sidelines and are practically unused. If they wanted a realistic version, they should have gotten tougher. Why couldn’t at least the training sequence be as hard-hitting as The 36th Chamber of Shaolin? (13.10.2020)