Over the past few years, mega-studio Disney has turned many of its animated classics into big, beautiful cash cows.
Some of their live-action remakes are good (The Jungle Book, Christopher Robin), while others are truly abysmal (Dumbo, Maleficent and Maleficent: Mistress of Evil).
The rest of them (Aladdin, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella etc.) are all various shades of uselessly mediocre.
Like the 1998 animated original, 2020's Mulan begins with the titular character (Yifei Liu) living with her family in a small village in Imperial China.
Struggling to abide by societal and cultural norms, Mulan forms a unique bond with her father - Hua Zhou (Tzi Ma).
In order to save her father's life, she disguises herself as a man and enlists in the country's imperial army.
She and the other soldiers must face off against vengeful Rouran leader Bori Khan (Jason Scott Lee) and shapeshifting witch Xianniang (Gong Li).
Disney's latest remake comes at a rather peculiar time for the studio, Hollywood, and the entire globe.
Pushed back several times due to the pandemic, Mulan was eventually dumped onto streaming service Disney+ for an additional fee.
On top of the release date/format issues, both Disney and this remake have faced backlash over recent comments made by Liu.
Sadly, the drama surrounding Mulan is significantly more interesting than the movie itself.
Disney took a big gamble by removing the musical numbers along with Mushu, the talking Chinese Dragon (voiced by Eddie Murphy).
Taking the story in a different direction, filmmaker Niki Caro (Whale Rider) has delivered a humourless, tonally inconsistent mix of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Wonder Woman.
The original sees Mulan steadily transition from a bumbling nobody into a fearless warrior, thus bringing honour to her family and her village.
This time around, she develops her power (referred to as "chi") in the opening scene.
Like Captain Marvel and Rey (the Star Wars sequel trilogy), this Mulan is an all-knowing super-human with zero weaknesses to overcome.
Following the movie's cheesy prologue, our lead spends way too much time hiding her abilities and blindly following orders.
Saddled with an extremely bland version of the character, Liu fails to inject personality or deliver more than one facial expression.
With the exception of mega-star Donnie Yen as the high-ranking Commander Yung, the actors all struggle to flesh out their one-note characters.
One of the world's biggest martial artists/actors, Jet Li, gets some brief moments to shine, but is ultimately tripped up by poorly dubbed vocals.
Jaw-dropping visuals and enjoyable action sequences prevent this adaptation from becoming an all-out disaster.
Each set-piece is bolstered by the combination of Harry Gregson-Williams's charming score and Mandy Walker's rich cinematography.
Hampered by strange plot decisions, poor pacing, and a lack of thematic depth, Mulan will entertain some viewers and frustrate many others.
Rating: 2/5
Mulan is now streaming on Disney+.
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