At its core, Caro's "Mulan" is quietly revolutionary, as it revels in the exhilarating sight of a young woman fighting for and earning her place in the world.

| Jul 26, 2023

I can only describe Mulan as a visually spectacular disappointment. Void of any emotional resonance, the film eschews coherent storytelling for what amounts to an Orientalist war epic masquerading as a feminist win for Asians everywhere.

| Mar 16, 2021

Its cast, its attitude, its overall eagerness to please -- all benefits, one would think -- don't add up to a good movie. They add up to a blueprint of the movie this ought to be.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Oct 23, 2020

While glorious to look at, the movie still feels slightly hollow. All the right pieces are there, but an emotional connection to the characters is lacking.

| Original Score: 6.8/10 | Sep 10, 2020

The combat set pieces are terrific, the scale of the storytelling is epic.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 6, 2020

I'm as athletic as a bed sock but, for so many reasons, this movie made me want to do backflips.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 5, 2020

That magic isn't present here, and the action scenes don't achieve lift-off.

| Original Score: C | Sep 5, 2020

Talking animals and slapstick silliness are very much out and stiff-lipped themes of family, duty and honour are in.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 5, 2020

I admire Disney for trying to do something different -- they didn't just make a shot-for-shot remake of the original movie -- but all of the choices they made were inferior to the original film.

| Original Score: C- | Sep 5, 2020

This is ultimately a father and daughter story... That emotional story gets me every time.

| Sep 5, 2020

It might have been an excellent reinterpretation, were it not so heavy-handed and, well, Disney-fied. But what remains bears minimal discernible relationship to the original, while reading too much like a basic Marvel film.

| Sep 4, 2020

Apart from the lack of singing, romance, comedy and a mouthy dragon, this is just like the original. You might wonder what's left. Well, $200 million buys a lot of scenery and sets and quite a few stars. This new version has spectacle in mind.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2020

It's an efficient retelling of a tale about a young Chinese woman discovering her power -- affecting at times, occasionally quite lovely, but earnest, often clumsy, and notably short on joy.

| Sep 4, 2020

I enjoyed Mulan, but I couldn't avoid the sense of disconnect inherent in watching a wuxia-style period piece with Chinese actors speaking accented English dialogue.

| Original Score: B | Sep 4, 2020

Its roughly 900-year-old hero remains inspirational. As the wise old Emperor said in the original film, "You don't meet a girl like that every dynasty."

| Original Score: 3/4 | Sep 4, 2020

If someone were to do a shot every time a character mentions "honor," they would surely die of alcohol poisoning before the credits roll under a new recording of "Reflection" from Christina Aguilera.

| Sep 4, 2020

Mulan delivers a straightforwardly heroic narrative of a capable woman battling her way to respect. It just doesn't have much else to add.

| Sep 4, 2020

For a film with so much at stake, Mulan never feels epic, but it does succeed as a story of a young woman courageously defying cultural and social expectations.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2020

It is no longer easily recognisable as a family film. Nor is it a grown-up action film.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 4, 2020

[Mulan] lives up to the themes of its predecessor while also cutting its own forcefully dynamic path.

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Sep 4, 2020