User Reviews

I'm not someone beholden to the songs and characters in the original Mulan. I was excited Disney was steering away from the shot-for-shot remake trend of their live-action retellings. Unfortunately, they went a bit too far in the other direction and made a generic Chinese fantasy martial arts film. The cinematography is great and the colors are often vibrant, but the story is pretty dull. The lead actress is awfully bland as well. The action and music are standouts, but get bogged down by some pacing issues.

My biggest issue with this film though is Mulan herself. Disney has gotten into this awful habit of making their female characters Mary Sues who never struggle or have any character arc (e.g., Rey and Captain Marvel). It's like they don't know how to write female characters, which is insane because it shouldn't be any different than male characters. Mulan in the original was a great character because she used her wits and perseverance to get ahead in a man's world. In this retelling, Mulan is gifted magical powers (?!) from birth and never has to struggle. This movie is almost saying she needs magical powers to be better than men, which is ridiculous. How hard is it to portray female characters that work hard and use ingenuity to advance in society?

This film is ultimately joyless and hollow. There's no Will Smith as Genie or stunning CGI to make this remake stand out. What we end up with is a movie that feels like it was made by committee.

Saw 2020's 'Mulan' as a massive Disney fan. Although their recent live action offerings are very mixed and none are as good as the originals, many of their animated films are fine examples of how to do animation right. Looking at the title, the advertising and that seeing it was made by Disney, it is very easy to think that this is another one of the live action remakes and it is easy why it has been critiqued as one. Part of me was really psyched being somebody who loves the 1998 film, but also worried when seeing the hate for the film and for the lead actress.

When seeing 'Mulan', it didn't actually strike me as a live action remake and doesn't have an awful lot of Disney in sight. Other than the title and references to the score of the 1998 film embedded in this one. Instead to me it came over as more another version of the character and her story, and one more serious and less family friendly, so directly comparing the two films didn't strike me as right. While the disappointment that is expressed is understandable, as there are big flaws to be found and it definitely does not have the same amount of charm, heart and thrills as the 1998 film, to me 'Mulan' was not that bad and was not deserving of the extreme backlash before it was even released. Seeing as Yifei Liu's personal views had/have nothing to do with Disney or the film crew.

'Mulan' is not perfect. Do agree with those that say that a lot of the dialogue is pretty bad, with a tendency to sound stilted, especially in the cringe-worthy and very out of place attempts at sporadic humour with the troops, and go too heavy on emphasising the characters' values. Loyal, brave and true agreed did not need to be emphasised so much, the point was made quite quickly. There are things in the plot that sounded oddly intriguing on paper, but done too little with. Especially with the phoenix, which doesn't really add anything.

Both Xianniang and Bori Khan felt like underdeveloped characters. The former comes off better as she is suitably mysterious and alluring, but her motives are pretty confused later on (with it being not clear what side she was on), she is pretty much a come and go plot device and her final scene felt very rushed. Bori Khan has an intimidating look but is underused and his motivation is pretty much the only thing that is learnt about him. Didn't like how easily defeated he was and how clumsy the scene looked. In general the characters could have done with more depth, Mulan and Zhou are the ones that come closest, and the film could have done with more soul.

However, 'Mulan' does look great, especially striking in the truly exquisite historical visuals and the at its best majestic scenery. There is a lot of colour and atmosphere in the photography, which was clearly inspired by the likes of Zhang Yimou, and the costumes do catch the eye. The CGI didn't seem too excessive and didn't look jarringly cheap either. Harry Gregson-Williams' score is stirring and also has a sumptuous emotional core, also enjoyed hearing references to the music from the 1998 film. Niki Caro on the most part directs with confidence.

Personally really was impressed by the beautifully choreographed and dynamically photographed action. When it needed to be tense it was, when it needed to be particularly athletic it was and when it needed to excite it did. Especially the big battle and the avalanche. It was easy to feel the strength, pain and perseverance needed to get through all that training, only the final showdown came over as ridiculous. The story was not perfect but it engaged enough, intrigued with the cultural aspects and inspired thanks to Mulan still being a strong character (though she doesn't grow as much or go on a character journey as much as the animated Mulan, if to briefly compare). Although the father-daughter reunion was more emotionally powerful previously, it is still quite moving in a subtle way here.

Moreover, the acting wasn't bad at all to me. Liu is a confident lead, bringing authority and vulnerability to Mulan that was ideal for this ideal heroine. Donnie Yen and Jet Li are strong authority figures and Jason Scott Lee does inject some menace into his underdeveloped role. Tzi Ma's performance is very telling in its nuance, more than once not even saying a word. Li Gong looks wonderful in the film and is both deceptively alluring and mysterious, despite the character herself is not meaty Gong's acting is quite complex.

In conclusion, prepared myself to hate it but quite liked it while finding it very flawed. 6/10

They turned Mulan into a Rey clone; that's all you need to know. Why bother creating a flawed and vulnerable character that gains the viewer's respect through hard work, perseverance and resourcefulness when you can just tack on magical plot-solving heritage and thus cut out the middleman entirely? Worked well with Rey, didn't it?

Also, remember how in the original, Shan Yu didn't care one bit that Mulan was a woman? All that mattered to him was that she was responsible for destroying his army and he took her as seriously as any other enemy. Well it would seem that was just way too progressive for modern audiences because Mr. Khan over here can't go 5 minutes without reminding you how much he hates women...because, you know, overcoming segregation matters more than overcoming your enemy through skill and ingenuity.

A 200 million dollar female power fantasy -- that's what this is.

Those who say this is worse than the "original", the "original" is Chinese folk lore. And I promise you the "original" folk lore didn't have funny looking talking Phoenix. All Disney live action get worse reviews than the cartoon version because they saw the cartoon version first. And this movie is also a victim of that.

But as old as the "original" folk tale is there obviously are many versions. This live version certainly is different way of telling the famous story and I think it succeeded in doing so. They didn't try to turn it into a musical which I am soooo glad.

It's not perfect, they tried to mix Chinese action and Disney which didn't seem to work. But the acting was good in general and certainly was entertaining.

The 2020 film Mulan is a Disney live-action remake of their classic Renaissance animated film of the same name. It's a study on how not to re-tell a story.

First, let's go over the good parts. It's a pretty little film. It has wuxia feel to it and all the different set pieces are well-made and suitably elaborate. I also liked the costuming and the action choreographies. Suffice to say, this film looks very good.

But then comes the story. You've taken one of the most iconic Disney heroines and you've turned her into a deus ex machina. You've taken a girl who chose to rebel against social expectations and triumph despite all her disadvantages, and you've turned her into the chosen one who succeeds because she was born with magical powers. Can you see how that's so much worse? How that's so much more demeaning?

Add in all the other magical bovine manure and senseless directing choices, and you have a film that has none of the charm of the original. None of the uplifting heroics. None of the gender equality. This Mulan doesn't save China while being a girl. She saves China despite being a girl. Because she was destined to do so and because she's more special than you can ever hope to be.

But it's pretty. It has good action scenes. Nevertheless, it's not a good film.

I'm glad this isn't some shot-for-shot remake like 2019's The Lion King. I'm glad they actually stuck with the Ballad of Mulan story rather than it be a remake of the animated movie. I'm glad that most of this movie's budget went around the way the land of ancient China should be presented. The music is great, the cinematography is beautiful, the visuals are incredible, the acting is solid, the editing and sound effects are good... and that's pretty much it.

I'm giving this movie a 7/10 because it's better than most of the other Disney remakes (with Beauty and the Beast being the one that I happened to REALLY like), and because there is a lot to like about it. The only thing not great about this movie is the writing and the way some things are executed. I wish they spent more time developing the characters and used more of that time to develop the villain. The villain in the cartoon movie was so well-crafted and well-written, but the villain in the remake feels like there's a whole lot missing from him.

It's a solid, mildly entertaining movie overall and definitely better than that garbage Artemis Fowl movie!

This is such a good movie! Why can't people enjoy a good movie without being so highly critical or comparing it to the original. There is so much new content and the camerawork is spectacular! Yes, there are some problems and it was rushed at first, but it ended out to be a thrill ride nonetheless! So, open your mind and enjoy this amazing Disney remake!

I came to this fresh. I haven't seen the original. I didn't know the story. Judged solely therfore on its own merits I really enjoyed this movie.

Everything that made Mulan great has been dropped the charming side characters, the humour, the character development all of it in favour of this bland cringey Cliche be yourself girl power lunacy. Just don't waste the 30$ on this believe me you will thank me later.

I've never seen the cartoon version but my daughter has and she loved ir. I promised I'd take her to see this when it came out in the theater. Well, that didn't happen. Although the price tag was a bit high I decided to shell out the 30 bucks (I'd have paid 50 at the movies). We both found the movie enkoyable. It was dramatic, funny in parts, touching in other parts. The scenery was amazing. I'm not sure what people were looking for in this. Apparently there is a talking dragon and singing in the carroon. I'll pass on both. This reminds me of another Disney movie people under-rated because they didn't understand the point: Tron: Legacy. Just chill out and enjoy a movie rather than getting your quarantined panties in a bunch!

Firstly, do not think of this movie as a remake of the Disney cartoon movie. It is a retelling of the Mulan legend. Once you get to this realization, the movie is actually quite good. A few details were glossed over and some of the characters could have used more development, but the moral, message, tone, and adventure is still all there. And some of the choices made were definite improvements to the version of the tale we are familiar with.

Well... this is what happens when you give 200 million dollars budget and a great cast to the wrong director! Or probably it was the producer... You could at least give us some nice soundtrack... but noooo, you had to destroy it all at once

I don't understand the low reviews this movie is getting. I'm not sure why so many hate it. What are they comparing it to? The animation version? This movie follows the key storyline of the animation, but it is not a carbon copy. So don't expect it to be like the animation or you'll be disappointed. If I based my interest in this movie on the reviews alone, I would not have watched it. But thank goodness I did (watched it, that is).

The movie is beautifully shot on location with grandiose panoramic shots, and authentic looking sets. The action can be engaging, and beautifully captured. Some unique action sequences, but for most part nothing you haven't seen from these genre of movies before. Like wire work action sequences but not overly done. Overall, it (the action) adds to the story telling of the movie, and not detracts from it.

But for me the biggest plus of this movie is, it's not a musical. Thank goodness, they didn't turn this into a musical, like they did with Aladdin. This is an action based movie, where the animation's original musical score is played in the background at appropriate moments, instead of being front and centre.

If looking for an action based movie with a feel good story, give this a go. It's a better movie that the current ratings (4.3 at the time this review was written) it's currently getting.

I hear people complaining saying it's not a Disney movie like who cares theres some good fantasy martial arts in the movie and it was a entertaining movie overall.

This production alone is worth more than the current IMBd 5/10. I for one, really enjoyed it. Excellent writing and directing. Stunning cinematography, visuals and S/VFX. The score was on point, and casting and performances all great. For a Disney film, the action was awesome. My only critique is the pacing made the 115 min runtime feel much longer. Some scenes were too long and dragged out. Still, very enjoyable and certainly undeserving of its current low score. It's an 8/10 from me

My expectation is too high, but it's still worth to watch for me. I have watched this movie two times and I like it, I was really enjoyed the movie, maybe I like it cause I really exited and my expectation of this movie. There's why i don't know why y'all hating this movie

Without mushu this movie is incomplete and there are no songs in this movie, which makes it feel flat. There's a new character in this movie and character reductions from the original movie.

This Disney Princess live action was feel different with the other Disney Princess cause in here Mulan was not really like/love the Prince or what ever is his name is. The action, the CGI, the Acting was good. The acting of the actor was good but there's a problematic actor and when this movie was release there's problem cause they use wrong location of the movie. But I recommend you to watch this and it's worth it.

Had a good time watching Mulan. I've never been a follower of any other type of Mulan series so it didn't contaminate this movie for me and I saw this as a wholy entertaining saga.

I usually don't write reviews, but all these negative reviews based on US vs. China patriotism are a disgrace. If you can watch a movie without searching for political messages you should be able to enjoy this one. All in all it's well done with some minor flaws. It's entertaining, inspiring, definitely not as funny as the original, but equally touching. Give it a chance

It's hard to put your finger on why, but this movie just leaves you cold. The characters have no depth, the set pieces seem oddly small scale and it is just deeply unsatisfactory. It seems they were focused on the feminist aspect of the story that they forgot about everything else