Review: "Mulan"

“Mulan” is by my lights the weakest of the modern Disney animated films, possibly challenged by “Pocahontas” as the House of Mouse went through a period where it seemed more interested in depicting and attracting underrepresented populations than actually spinning a good yarn.

Now everything cartoon shall be remade live action (and probably back again another generation down the line). I’m pleased to see the new “Mulan” made a better impression on me than the last, though it’s still plagued by some drab performances and the common ailment these days of being 15-20 minutes too long.

Based on ancient Chinese folklore, this is the story of a young woman who overcame tradition and societal pressure to become a great warrior-hero who saved the kingdom. In that day only boys took up their fathers’ sword and girls existed to be matched up and married off.  A son who died in war lived on in honor, but a daughter who does not comport herself in a mild, subservient way brought shame to her family.

It’s got a ton of action scenes and is surprisingly rated PG-13, though probably closer to PG than R. There’s too much parkour-type stuff for my taste -- people flipping sideways through the air and running up walls and such -- but I’m impressed by the sheer scale of the choreography and pageantry, which is positively Kurosawa-esque at times.

Mulan (Liu Yifei) is the eldest daughter of Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma), a crippled war hero. He has raised her tacitly encouraging her rambunctiousness and proclivity toward combat. But now that she’s old enough to marry, Mulan is nothing but an embarrassment to her mother (Rosalind Chao).

Then a threat comes to the kingdom in the form of Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee, unrecognizable under a mask of scars), a Genghis Khan-type raider seeking revenge against the Emperor (Jet Li), who killed his father. Every family is required to volunteer one male as military conscript, and since Zhou has no sons and is in no condition to fight, Mulan sneaks off with his sword and armor, passing herself off as a man.

Things go through a pretty predictable cycle: she struggles to fit in with the other recruits, particularly Chen Honghui (Yoson An), an aggressive-in-a-dreamy-sort-of-way type. Mulan endears herself to her commander, Tung (Donnie Yen), as the best fighter in the division, though her deception weighs upon her conscious and the three tenets of the warrior ethos: loyalty, bravery and truth.

One of the most interesting changes from the animated movie is the addition of the character Xian Lang (Gong Li), a powerful witch who fights on behalf of Khan. She can transform into a hawk or swarm of bats, and even enter another person’s consciousness to control them for at time.

Of course the women clash in combat, but also reveal themselves as kindred spirits who are ostracized for stepping out of the accepted roles for women. Lang tells Mulan she is poisoning her chi, or life energy, by denying her feminine identity.

Directed by New Zealander Niki Caro (“Whale Rider”) from a script by Lauren Hynek, Rick Jaffa, Elizabeth Martin and Armanda Silver, “Mulan” carries the torch of feminism proudly though in a decidedly non-threatening way. All the men who sneer at Mulan, before and after she her impersonation is revealed, are just converts waiting to happen.

Liu’s performance is a bit flat and emotionally vacant. We don’t really feel the agony of her estrangement or the fierce pride that would lead someone like Mulan to be such a barrier-breaker. It’s just a lot of blank expressions and stunts.

Yet, I’ll admit I like this version of “Mulan” more than the cartoon one. There’s no silly talking animal sidekicks (sorry, Eddie Murphy) or concessions to a kiddie audience. You may find that smaller children have less patience for this version, but adults will respond with more enthusiasm than the original.

Review: "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story"

Befitting its title and main character, “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” is the grittier, edgier entry in the Star Wars saga. Right from the get-go, director Gareth Edwards and screenwriters Chris Weitz and Tony Gilroy give us the tonal and sensory cues that we’re in for something very different.

No ubiquitous text scrawl at the start of the movie. No blast of John Williams’ iconic Star Wars theme to set the mood. Indeed, Michael Giacchino’s score has a dark and forbidding beauty to it. The rebels are shown to be capable of underhanded dealings and even cold-bloodedness in battling the Empire. Hardly a lightsaber in sight.

There’s still a line between good and evil, but lots of graying at the fringes.

There are also plenty of hallmarks of Star Wars. It’s a tale of orphans and adoptive parents, of hope shoving off despair, of those who desire power for its own sake and those who would oppose them. The Force certainly plays less of a direct role than any of the seven other movies, but its energy still thrums in the background, living on the characters’ tongues and in their hearts.

It’s easy to call it the weakest of the Star Wars movies. The first half especially is discombobulated, with too many fringe characters demanding their moment in the spotlight. Including not one, not two but three Asian-influenced warriors who aid the cause. One of them is even the embodiment of that tired old saw, the blind-but-still-a-badass combatant.

Still, it’s a matter of degrees. The weakest Star Wars flick is better than 90% of sci-fi/fantasy films out there. And “Rogue One” continually builds energy as it goes instead of losing it, leading to an action-packed final act I suspect will leave zero fans disappointed.

You probably already know that “Rogue One” shines a light on the events leading up to the destruction of the (first) Death Star, depicting the men and women (and aliens) who procured the secret plans that made it possible for Luke Skywalker to blow up the planet-killing station.

(And, in doing so, it definitely rejiggers around some of the established Star Wars lore. To wit: Apparently, many Bothans didn’t die to bring us this information.)

Felicity Jones plays Jyn Erso, capable thief and miscreant. Abandoned as a child after her father (Mads Mikkelsen) was conscripted by the Empire to help construct the Death Star, she finds herself falling into the hands of the Rebel Alliance. Leader Mon Mothma (Genevieve O’Reilly) recruits her to seek out Saw Gerrera (Forest Whitaker), a radical who rescued Jyn as a child. Saw’s a battle-scarred sort who’s missing parts of his body, and we suspect that’s not all.

Chief baddie is Ben Mendelsohn as Director Orson Krennic, chief architect of the Death Star project, while Diego Luna provides the counterpoint, rebel spy chief Cassian Andor. Donnie Yen plays Chirrut Imwe, aforementioned blind guy, and Wen Jiang is stoic gunslinger Baze Malbus. Riz Ahmed plays Imperial pilot/turncoat Bodhi Rook, whose entire role could’ve been outsourced to a gaggle of stunt men and extras, and probably should have been.

The scene-stealer is droid K-2SO (voice and motion capture by Alan Tudyk), an Imperial enforcer who was captured and reprogrammed by Andor. He’s rather peevish but also protective of his human charges, and is so used to more freewheeling behavior that when the time comes to impersonate his former role, he’s spectacularly awful at it.

I enjoyed “Rogue One: A Star Wars Story” – but then I’ve liked all the Star Wars movies, even the unfairly maligned prequels. (To those who harp on their clunky dialogue and goofy humor: that’s a feature, not a bug, of all these films.)

It’s a departure, but also a return to roots for a franchise that seemingly has whole new universes yet to explore.