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I admit that I haven't really bothered with Disney's live-action remakes of their animated classics, partially because they reek of safeness, as the mouse house is less inclined to take risks, but also because I have little interest in rewatching a version of a story that was just fine as animation. However, Mulan was one that teased a willingness to break away from the original by making it more of a wuxia film, like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. And that's what they did, replacing many of the action scenes of the original with some of the high-flying martial arts fantasy.
Unfortunately, when it came to revising the plot for this, they ended up playing it safe anyway, drawing from Disney's worn out copy of the Hero's Journey playbook. Mulan ends up being this "chosen one," a woman with the power of chi, normally expected of warriors, which are only men. She also gets a blatant parallel character in the main villain's sidekick, a witch that represents what Mulan may become if she rejects her family and her country. As a consequence, the film wallows a little too much in its symbolism, making the action scenes and the internal struggle scenes feel disconnected.
The film also seems to struggle between its two influences. Just when you think it's going to really break out into wuxia, it will instead hit a highlight from the original film, make the story feel chained in a frustrating way. If it was a more faithful adaptation, I might have at least tolerated it more, but here it's given just enough slack to make one wish for something more ambitious. Of course, the action itself is undercut by its American editing, constantly cutting from hit to hit, instead of letting the martial arts flow. Finally, the cinematography comes across as rather flat, as everything is shot either from face on, or from the side, limiting the action's impact and resulting in a bit of a claustrophobic effect. That might work for other films, but for what is supposed to be a great war epic, it makes everything feel small and dull.
That's not to say it's a bad film, not really. It's fairly well cast, even if the dialogue is a bit stiff at times, and the villain has decent presence, for what little we get of him. Avoiding the 90s humor of the original 90s film was certainly a good idea as well. I guess overall I got my hopes up for something that was going to be more flashy and exciting, only to be disappointed by what turned out to be another bog-standard Disney film, which is probably what they were aiming for anyway.
As mentioned, the movie business haven't really had it great this year, so it was with some curiosity that Christopher Nolan decided to push Tenet through in an effort to bring people back. Unfortunately, the box-office numbers weren't exactly great, ensuring more stuff would get delayed to maximize profits. Still, I went to see it, partially because I hadn't seen anything new in theaters since Bloodshot (hey, remember that?), and partially because I wanted to see what madness Nolan was working up this time.
So what we have here is Nolan trying to make the Inception lightning strike twice with a film revolving around some bizarre sci-fi tech and trying to make an engaging action movie using it. The tech is certainly fascinating enough and allows for some pretty slick special effects allowing for quite a visual spectacle, but not much else.
As for the plot, well, it's probably not as smart as it wants us to think it is. I won't spoil much here, but its attempts to have a plot that feels bendy and weird come across as kind of flat. Part of the problem is that the characters don't really have arcs so much as they have roles to fill. While Inception did this too, it was at least clear who was doing what and why. With Tenet, things get lost and muddled quite often, and having the dialog buried in the audio mix certainly didn't help things. While I understood what the cool tech thing was and what they were doing with it, by the time we got to the big finale, the stakes seemed lost in the chaos, with two armies colliding with each other and I wasn't quite sure where they came from or why I should care about their struggle. The story wants to make it sound like some big terrible event is going to happen, but it gets muddled under all the vagueness, resulting in a film that really isn't that satisfying in the end.
So unfortunately, this one doesn't really stick the landing. While it's probably worth watching for the surreal visuals and neat cinematography, don't expect the plot to make much sense or to be very clearly told. And maybe if you do get to it, the audio mix will be better, which might help. Recommended to Nolan enthusiasts and the curious, but it's not really the tent-pole blockbuster Nolan wanted it to be.
I wanted to round things out with another film from this year, so when I remembered this war film with Tom Hanks had some pretty impressive trailers, I decided to give this a watch.
The story really isn't much, honestly. Hanks plays Ernest Krause, a naval commander of a team of destroyers escorting his first convoy across the Atlantic ocean right after the US joins World War II. There's some set up and a few moments on land, but the rest of the film covers a three-day period of the ships entering a section of the Atlantic where they won't get any air support, leaving them at the mercy of the German U-boats prowling around.
Where this film excels is in tension and atmosphere. Plenty of military protocol is followed, really giving the lively and direct manner such things had to be run. From there, it's all up to Krause to make decisions and handle the situations as they come, based on a few pings and some math, his commands being expertly transmitted to the rest of the crew. The result is a film that feels more like a procedural, but with this much authenticity and tension, it's very easy to get caught up in the moment, reeling with the peaks and troughs the movie movie takes.
It's been a while since I've seen a movie this intense. The dread of dealing with an enemy that you can't see, but know is there, is thick, and even when the action dies down, the tension only gets stronger as the U-boats continue to circle like sharks. Perhaps not for the faint of heart, this movie was an incredible ride, and at only 90s minutes, doesn't waste any time with excess or melodrama. High recommended, and will probably become one that WWII buffs will revisit for years to come.
To be honest, I'm not really planning to do a Top 5 or a 2020 recap, as there just isn't that much to cover. I'm also debating whether or not I'll do an Anticipated Films article, as much from the 2020 will just get carried over (to say nothing of further potential delays). As much as I like talking about movies, I don't know if there will be much to say about this year, going forward.
As for my site, I've got at least one other article planned before the end of the year, and some other ideas for 2021. We'll see how many of them I get to. In the mean time, I hope everyone is staying warm and staying safe.
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