Also unfortunate is Caro’s decision to sometimes treat all this hand-to-hand combat as if she was trying to out-style James Wan, flipping her camera on its axis in a bout of aesthetic trickery that quickly exhausts its novelty. The star’s emotional register is flat, her energy only spiking when there’s a wall to scale or a bad guy to kick. Mulan is obviously a warrior far more skilled than her male compatriots, but Yifei doesn’t seem that interested in developing her as a character with needs and desires outside the battlefield. Disney EnterprisesĪnd though most of the cast have fun with the material, especially villains played by Jason Scott Lee and Gong Li, Yifei displays a curious lack of nerve as the title hero. Yifei doesn't do much to develop Mulan as a character with needs and desires outside the battlefield.
(“I’m your commanding officer!” barks a, well, commanding officer played by Donnie Yen.) The characters are not particularly layered, a third-act twist makes zero narrative sense and there is enough exposition-heavy dialogue to bludgeon an entire battalion. Less pretty is the script, which took four screenwriters to conjure even though there’s perfectly good source material just sitting there, waiting for a photocopy machine. Sumptuously designed, brightly costumed and shot with an eye toward epic grandeur, the new film is simply gorgeous to take in, no matter the size of the screen. Working with a budget many times that of her previous projects combined, Caro ( Whale Rider, The Zookeeper’s Wife) has a ball burning through her producers’ vast resources, staging massive battles and building a richly detailed world from scratch. When the Emperor (Jet Li, regrettably throne-bound) orders each of his kingdom’s families to send one male relative to battle, the brave and headstrong Mulan (Liu Yifei) volunteers by masquerading her gender in order to prevent her ailing father (Tzi Ma) from sacrificing himself. Once again using the Chinese legend to tell a story of empowerment and familial responsibility, Mulan opens with the nation under attack from bloodthirsty invaders. It may not be essential, but it is more thoroughly original in design and entertaining in execution than anything plopping out of the Mouse House’s remake factory floor. Sticking close to the original film’s story but abandoning its songs and cutesy Disney Renaissance touches – apologies in advance to anyone hoping that Eddie Murphy’s talking dragon Mushu would resurface here – Caro’s Mulan proves itself early and often. So though there is no real cinematic need for Mulan 2.0 to exist –just as Disney’s updates of The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast and Aladdin could be erased from history with little cultural consequence – Caro offers and accomplishes far more with Mulan than Mulan asks of her.ĭirector Niki Caro stages massive battles and builds a richly detailed world from scratch.
Because while COVID-19 has forced Disney to release the film in many parts of the world not in theatres but as a premium offering on Disney+, that particular streaming service isn’t available in China, where multiplexes also happen to be back in steady business. The film should accomplish both feats of commerce handily, even in this pandemic era. Until that day arrives, though – and let’s pray that executives only dip into the classic cartoons and leave the Pixar canon alone, because how horrifying would a real-life Toy Story be? – we will have a decade or two more of products like Mulan.įamiliar and respectful, director Niki Caro’s remake of the 1998 animated hit is designed for twin purposes, neither of them artistically admirable: To appease fans of the original cartoon and make a boatload of money in China.
#Is the zookeepers wife a remake movie
Eventually, Disney is going to open its vault, frantically search for an animated movie to mutate into a live-action blockbuster and turn up empty.
0 kommentar(er)
