Review: Mulan (2020)
Mulan, directed by Niki Caro, tells the tale of Hua Mulan (Liu Yifei), the eldest daughter of war veteran Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma) living her life hoping to bring honor to her family. But everything change when the Huns attack, led by the EVIL Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) pillaging China with the help of the shape-shifting witch Xian Lang (Gong Li). So the Emperor (Jet Li) issues a decree that one man from every family must serve the army to defend the motherland from the invaders. Seeing as how her father is unable to fight, Mulan takes matters into her own hand and disguises herself as a man to fight for her family.
This film is one of many this year that’s been delayed from its initial date due to COVID-19, and in a rather shocking turn of events Disney decided to release this film digitally on Disney+ instead of going to theaters. With a massive budget of $200 million and being a live-action adaptation of one of Disney’s most visually epic animated films, I thought they would never forgo the theatrical release for this big tent-pole blockbuster, but here we are. Now instead of slowly dying inside watching this shoddy remake in a dark theater for two hours, people can now enjoy this lifeless imitation of a 90-minute animated film from the comfort of their own home for only $30 and a Disney+ account.
If you read some of my previous reviews of these Disney remakes on this site, then you should probably know by now that I’m not exactly the biggest fan of them, and this film doesn’t really help change my perception of them. Every Disney remake I’ve seen so far seems to miss the point of why the original animated films were so special to begin with, and despite some significant deviations from the animated film this remake is no different.
The same story beats from the original happen here too, and just like with every Disney remake there is no heart and soul behind each beat; they’re near-identical imitations and nothing else. I could go on another rant like I did with the Aladdin and Lion King remakes but I don’t see the point; this has become the norm for Disney. Another soulless remake for them to exploit the nostalgia-crazed sheep with.
The editing is a complete eyesore; they really go overboard with the amount of cuts for each scene, making them a literal eyesore to watch. There’s no room to take in the stylish action because the film keeps cutting to a new shot every. single. second. Speaking of the action, it’s fine when you’re able to see it, only problem is that if you seen any other Chinese martial arts films like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon or House of Flying Daggers then you’ve seen this action before but done better in those other films. This isn’t really anything new.
There are a couple bright spots when it comes to the film’s acting though not much; Liu Yifei was fine as Mulan, and Tzi Ma gives a good performance or two here and there, but man does the rest of the acting suck. Maybe it’s because a good amount of these actors don’t speak English as their main language like in Jet Li’s case (who is honestly the worst actor in this film), but dear lord it’s real hard to sit through everyone’s painful delivery of the film’s already corny lines. The locations and set designs are flashy as you’d come to expect, the CG is decent at times and laughable at others, and the score is serviceable with a hint of nostalgia sprinkled in for those wanting to hear familiar tunes.
Overall this film does get some points for at the very least trying to be somewhat different from the original animated film, it’s not a blatant rehash like The Lion King remake was, but at the end of the day this was still a hard watch for me. There was still so much wrong for me with this film that I can’t sit through this film again without dying on the inside for just how awful it was put together. Don’t spend $30 for this factory-manufactured product, especially if you have any care for what’s going on in Hong Kong as this film is clearly meant to appease the Chinese propaganda. It’s a cheap knockoff of a fine animated film, show your kids the original instead.
Final Verdict: 3/10