Mulan 2020 SPOILER FREE Review

 

So yeah there's a new live action Disney remake out right now but what makes this one standout is that it's actually getting good reviews. So I have to wonder has Disney finally learned how to do these remakes well or is this just a fluke well that is something that sadly only time well tell however since I myself have some thoughts about this really unnecessary remake and so join me as I give you my review of the latest live action Disney remake "Mulan" enjoy.

The plot of the movie is also my first issue with the movie because it's honestly the exact same plot as the original. I get that this plot was most likely the same one that was in the original poem and Chinese folklore and so you really can't change that much of it but at the same time there needs to be something new added to the story to really justify this film's existence but sadly that's not the case here with entire story beats and lines being lifted from the original film with very little to nothing new added to them to make them seem new and different.

Starring in the film is Liu Yifei as Mulan , Donnie Yen as Commander Tung and  Jason Scott Lee as Bori Khan. Also starring in the film is Yoson An as Chen Honghui , Gong Li as Xian Lang , Jet Li as The Emperor Of China , Tzi Ma as Hua Zhou , Rosalind Chao as Hua Li , Xana Tang as Hua Xiu , Ron Yuan as Sergeant Qiang , Jimmy Wong as Ling , Doua Moua as Chien-Po , Chen Tang as Yao and Nelson Lee as The Chancellor.

The acting is one of the few things that got praise from the critics who reviewed this movie and it's not hard to see the performances got alot praise. Since the acting in the film is one of the films stronger suits with every actor in the film really owning and in some cases making the roles their own yes they will never match up to the original actors at least in terms of die hard fans but these actors do enough to make the roles their own and so they should be treated as such.

This film does make alot of changes to the 1998 Disney film either by removing characters or changing character names or splitting one character into two. For the most part i'm ok with these changes since i'm not really that big a fan of the original Disney film however what I find odd is that even tho the character of Mushu isn't in this film they give Mulan a phoenix guardian who pretty much fills the exact same role as Mushu so why they didn't just make Mushu a character in this film is beyond me since they could have just done the character without having him talk.

When the trailer for this film was first released and I think back when the film was first announced alot of people were upset that Mushu wasn't going to be in the movie. I'm honestly ok with him not being in the film simply because the original film is a more of a comedy and so having the character talk in that film makes sense this one isn't a comedy and is more based of the original poem and folklore and so having a character created for the Disney original film not only wouldn't make sense but it would also do a disservice to the character of Mulan and the original folklore and poem.

Now there is one change that I didn't like and it's a big one it's the fact that this version of Mulan is portrayed as a perfect character. In that she does nothing wrong and everything she does is right which to me doesn't make her an interesting and well written character it makes her boring which is a shame because visually Liu Yifei is stunning to look at and the character does get alot of cool things to do but that doesn't make the character interesting.

I'm not going to spoil anything here but there are alot of moments from the original film which are done in this film and are done horribly. Again im not going to spoil what they are because some of them are key points in the film but when you see them you'll know exactly what I mean and I have to wonder why these moments were added in this film because all they are are lesser versions of really impactful scenes.

Again i'm not going to spoil anything purely because I do feel that this movie is worth seeing just to see how they handle a certain plot point. Without giving anything away I do feel that a certain pot point from the original film was handled slightly better in this film just because it ties more into the films theme which is the typical Disney theme which I can't say because if you connect the dots you'll find a find a huge spoiler but the moment is ruined because they do something right after it that undercuts it in a big way.

This film is an hour and fifty five minuets long which makes it nearly thirty minuets longer then the 1998 Disney original film. So with that running time you'd think that more time would be spent developing our villain and developing our characters you'd be slightly wrong since they do spend a little bit more time at the training camp but none of it develops the characters and the same goes for the villain since we do get alot more scenes with the villain but none of those scenes develop the villain at all or make him interesting.

Now unlike the 1998 original Disney film this one is more of an action film then a romance film as such I have to talk about the action in the film itself. Which I honestly really liked and i'm glad that the action got alot of praise because it is so fun to see with every and I do mean mean every action sequence having at least one or two cool moments going on which is what you want in an action film and they do have some really cool camera movements as well which I wasn't expecting to be the case but i'm glad that it was.

Overall while I can't say that this is better then the original film I can say that if this wasn't a remake it would be a good if not great film. As it is tho it's going to get compared to the original and hell I made the choice to not include certain things in this review because they were things that were in the original film and this film does have alot of the same faults as the original film but where as the original had solid characters , comedy and romance to almost make up for it this film has none of that even the great action scenes don't make up for those faults as such as fun as this film is it gets a 6.5 out of 10 from this Disney fan.

All the images that I used in this review were gathered from the official Disney fandom wiki page and nowhere else. Since I only went to the official Disney fandom wiki page for images to use in this review I have no choice but to recommend you guys use the official Disney fandom wiki page for images from either this film or anything to do with the Disney version of Mulan simply because the images are really high quality that said however I do not feel that this film is worth the twenty pound price tag or the thirty dollar price tag your best waiting until December when the film will be on Disney+ for free.