Aladdin Central Messageboard

[Meesh]

I purposefully avoided other people's opinions before watching it because I really wanted to like it. And I did it like it. I just wasn't moved by it.

I didn't mind the idea of her starting out with strong Chi. It was new, which I appreciate, and it helps explain how she could become so skilled after a relatively short amount of time. It also opened the doors to some really enjoyable action scenes. But it does take away the aspect of her being thrown into a foreign predicament and her need to try, fail, work hard, and succeed. And that's okay, as long as they replace it with a different, just as poignant arc, but I didn't really feel like they did. Rei and other characters start out with strong powers too, but they still have really strong arcs.
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[AladdinsGenie]

Yeah, I've learned to just not listen to reviews or critics or people on the internet in general before I watch a movie now. We haven't had new movies in months, and I get the live-actions films aren't popular in concept (although the amount of money these are making would say otherwise), but everyone thinks they're a critic now cause they've watched some dude on youtube you'd never give two seconds of your time to in real life sarcastically tear apart a movie for an hour just to make money. It's exhausting.

I guess with my issue with the chi other than it being framed more like a magic power instead of a spiritual life force is that it prefaces her story that she was already powerful and strong and essentially "special". She was just forced to suppress it until it became part of her training arc where the skills she learned from the military and whatever skills the chi gave her blended in to one. Animated!Mulan was just a girl who decided to take her father's place with little to no idea what she was doing enough to the point where Shang actually sent her home at first. Live action!Mulan didn't know what she was doing either, but we always knew she had that magic chi spin kick move in her back pocket if things really got tough for her so all sense of danger was pretty much eliminated for me. Meanwhile, animated!Mulan was out here fighting the villain with a fan, like come on