Disney has a staggeringly dominant position in the industry and in a country that had any sort of functioning checks on business that Fox buyout would have never been approved. And to that you can add their movie vault policy to artificially drive up value for their properties - oh your’re an independent cinema that’s been doing repertory screenings of Alien? Tough luck - we own it now, and we’re not going to let that happen anymore.
Like their movies as much as you want, the way they dominate the market and their policies are an overall negative for everyone except Disney.
That’s a fair point. As a power-hungry trust-buster, I would allow them to buy Marvel only properties because it has to happen in the MCU. I would also force Sony to sell Spider-man and port the PS4 game to every platform. Vote for me.
But they stress that although it does adhere to the original Mulan legend from the 5th century, it is a big departure from the animated Disney movie – no anthropomorphic, wise-cracking dragon spewing out pop-culture references. And the villain is not the same, though it still hews to the “northern invaders” thing from the legend.
Chris Stuckman was disappointed for what I thought were 2 good reasons:
The cuts to scenes that showed the sacrifice Mulan is making putting on the armour, the little character moments are glossed over, even though the movie is longer.
Mild spoiler on the way Mulan’s character and training are presented. The fact that, instead of having to work hard at training her body and mind to keep up and achieve what nobody had done, she has a lot of abilities, hidden power which she hides from a young age. And when she chooses to stop restraining herself, she just starts kicking ass. Which changes the message. It’s easy to be yourself when you are already the chosen one…
To me this is way worst than the Blizzard/Hong Kong debacle lots of people here rallied behind. Because the CCP is actively carrying out oppressive cultural genocide! Concentration camps, organ harvesting, and forced sterilization of Uyghur births!
The political subtext is lost in New Zealand because Mulan was essentially a local production and showcased local talents. I know at least one person who worked on the production, the money was good.
Some people are also watching overseas and weighing in on the Chinese review site Douban. Mulan already has more than 50,000 reviews on the site, but the rating is a paltry 4.8 out of 10. Nearly 90 per cent of users who submitted reviews gave it three stars or less out of five. Reviewers blasted the movie for having flat characters and a bland story with details that don’t make sense. Many people also appeared unsatisfied with how the film handles certain Chinese cultural elements.
“It’s like that feeling when you go to a Western Chinese restaurant and have a pretty weird Chinese meal,” one user said of the new Mulan on Q&A site Zhihu.
The phoenix (a western myth that does not exist in China) and the cliched use of chi, in particular, are really sticking in people’s craws.
I was worried Ghosts of Tsushima would end up this way. I.e. awkward clumsy Westernized story. (Dunno whether it did or didn’t since I don’t own console.)
Let’s get down to BUSINESS
To increase the funds
Did they send me boycotts
When I asked for yuans!?
The fans are the saddest bunch I ever met
And we haven’t got Mushu!
But somehow we’ll shake [the] cash out of you!
DISNEY CAN!!!
Get away with all the scandalssss
DISNEY CAN!!!
Hit you with a Mulan 2
DISNEY CAN!!!
Make you forget about the west coast firesss Now shut up! and pay our Mouse Overlord your dues!
I watched it last night and… it’s complicated. I have good things I can say about it as a film, but criticisms too. It is a film that is not true to the animated film, true to history, or truly its own thing. It gets caught too much in the middle. While I have been critical of other Disney remakes for not forging their own identity, and this one does more than any save Malificent, it does so in ways where it never clearly commits to its own identity.
For example there is no songs. But several of the motifs are used in the relevant scenes. This doesn’t stand on its own, since it doesn’t provide anything in context, it is using familiarity with the animated movie to elevate itself without earning that in film. And some of the song lyrics become dialogue lines. Particularly the matchmaker and girl worth fighting for songs.
There are also two important character bits that I feel get short shrift… The choice to take her fathers place happens off screen, we just see her talk to her father, then she is in his armor. that was disappointing since it was one of the most emotionally resonant parts of the original animated film. The other was the post expulsion from the army. There is some important development between Mulan and the enemy shapeshifter in particular. It feels as if there is about 10 minutes of development missing. Honestly a fight between the two female leads where they talk-fight over things would have done wonders. Plus it is a traditional part of the wuxia style.
It also has the Hong Kong style, but never does anything interesting or unique with it, despite having Donnie Yen, Jet Lee, And Jason Scott Lee in it. Overall it is decent, but could have been better. It has the ingredients to be better, but doesn’t put them fully together. 3 stars.
To the point, piloting skills in Star Wars are generally transferable. In Star Wars a landspeeder and crop duster driver is capable of flying a top line military fighter and speeder bike. Hell Leia who never was given any implication of piloting ability is given the controls of the Falcon without question in ESB.
The universe treats piloting spacecraft as we do driving a car. Unless shown otherwise, the implication is everyone has basic competency. Some will be better, but the basic task of going point A to point B is generally doable.
Plus Rey is intimately familiar with the specific ships. Has repaired, dismantled, and otherwise scavenged starships her entire life, and knows the Falcon in and out. Her knowing how to fly it beyond simple A to B transit is well within bounds of the universe and adequately established.
Even granting this point, which I am not really willing to do but anyway, she didn’t display “basic competency,” she did aerobatics and if I recall (it’s been five years) outflew some professional, military pilots, right?
She is shown trying to escape from military pilots while a trained military gunner tries to shoot them down, and during the process of making their escape nearly crashes, ultimately only damaging the ship be clipping a rock outcropping.
I.e. someone with skill piloting vehicles, and familiarity with the specific craft of their escape (it is heavily implied but never outright stated she had flown the Falcon before) makes good on the close call improbable escape like any good action movie hero.
(If you can’t tell I am tired of people trying to hold Rey to a higher standard of fidelity to other action movie heroes, and especially other heroes of the Star Wars universe, so I am having none of it. But this is the Mulan thread, there is adequate to analyze about Mulan itself, so this will be the last I say on it)
