Boobirt Stylish but barely mediocre overall

Exoticalot People are voting emotionally.

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Dana An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Tom So much for an epic about the life and achievements of the legendary woman warrior. The film cannot be duller. The script is full of tired clichés and the writers have felt compelled to turn it into a sentimental love story more than anything else.The character of Mulan is supposed to be strong, tough and courageous. The Mulan in this film (and half the male soldiers) spends most of her time in tears, wringing her hands and whispering sweet nothings. She looks, sounds and acts every bit like a girl. It is hard to believe that the whole army of soldiers who spent 12 years with her did not catch on. The two leads look like they belong in a rom-com, rather than playing generals on the battlefield. All in all, a ridiculous and disappointing film.

webmaster-3017 An uninteresting folk tale...The problem with Mulan is the film itself is not interesting enough to sustain the audience attention. The film is actually decently filmed and filled with decent performances. However for a story like Mulan, one expects far better. One main concern is that I felt nothing for any of the characters, no matter how terrible the situation maybe. Nor do I feel the smartness or freshness in the tactics used. This is especially evident, after the Red Cliff series. Truism tells us all, that director Jingle Ma is not exactly the best director for substance. Coolness is what he is famous for. Think Tokyo Raiders. Unfortunately, Mulan never matches the level of fun within Raiders, but a more like-for-like comparison gives us the disappointing Butterfly Lovers. A bit better than his last venture, but the final output remains largely un-spectacular.The story goes like this: Girl goes to army. Girl falls in love with army general. Girl becomes the general. If you are Chinese, chances are you already know the story. If you like Disney, you probably know it as well. For accurately purposes, minus the talking dragon.Vicki Zhao Wei is actually well casted as the tomboyish Mulan. Zhao Wei basically played a similar role in Red Cliff. She is natural enough not to disappoint, but fails to be anything more than decent. Her chemistry with General (played by Alloy Chen) is more manufactured than love. Likewise Alloy Chen does well without standing out. Uninteresting can be as much as a problem as over-doing something. Veteran Yu Rong-Guang does reasonably well considering his limited screen time. Once again, Jaycee Chan continues to show exactly why he is quite simply just riding on the more famous Chan's fame. He does somewhat redeems himself in the final few moments of his screen time, but yet another non-existent performance. As for Mr. Hu Jun, well he is Hu Jun. Just as he played the villain role so well in Bodyguards and Assassins, Hu steals the spotlight. The result is being the most interesting figure within an uninteresting flick.All in all, Mulan is ultimately an uninteresting look at the life of a folktale heroin. Blame should really not be dealt to the actors, but rather the usage of Jingle Ma. Director Ma has never been known for making emotive dramas or at least movies with substance over style. Ma has always enjoyed painting a good picture, striking a good pose and excellent photography skills. Unfortunately, all you can say is that Mulan is beautiful to look at and nothing more. A tad better than Butterfly Lovers, but even that is not an achievement to be proud of... (Neo 2010) I rate it 4.5/10www.thehkneo.com

werkhard I had the opportunity to see this movie when I was in Asia. I was quite excited to learn that they've made a cinematic version of Mulan and used real characters and none of the twisted-tale of the original that Disney is famous for. Mind you, I quite enjoyed the Mulan that Disney made. Please bear in mind that the movie is not meant for kids due war-violence and some gore.The movie was a total disappointment. The characters were not believable and I felt throughout the movie that the soldiers or military personnel around Mulan are either too stupid to figure out she's female or in major denial. The makers of this movie could have chosen a more masculine female to play the role or perhaps try to make Mulan mask her identity a little harder but none was achieved here. She was way too pretty. Nothing wrong with that. I didn't quite figure out why Vitas was even portrayed in this movie other than the fact that he was every Chinese teen-idol in Asia trying to woo the age group here to fill seats in the theatre. It tries too hard to have all the elements of grand cinema feel like the 'Red Hill' or even 'Hero' but fails miserably. The fight scenes were too choreographed and looks fake and the bad guys were just too corny.I apologize if this review is not more constructive but I expected more from the movie. Instead I left the theater feeling this was pathetic attempt to replicate Disney's Mulan and tries to be original. Just my 2 cents. I would still recommend people to see it.

dvoon-missy-mcmuffin Having just caught it not too long ago, the memories of it is still fresh in my mind. I remembered as the lights to the cinemas brightened as the credits start to roll, it felt breathtaking to had partake in this film as an audience of it.Do NOT, and i repeat, do NOT, go into this film wanting it to be one of those battle-like army type of films one generally associates with the genre of epic at its core. For if you do, you will be disappointed for this is NOT one of those films that had been over-populated due to other greats like Braveheart, Gladiator etc. Those are epic genre all to their own merits......and so is this depiction of the legend of Hua Mulan. I would still classify it as an Epic to some degree, but leaning it more towards the genre of Drama and Romance, more akin to the likes of Tau Ming Chong (aka. Warlords that was released in 2007 starring Jet Li, Andy Lau and Takeshi Kaneshiro).There are battlefield scenes, Yes...but they are of minimal depiction based on the context of this film, that are used to carry the characterization of Hua Mulan that was perfectly casted with Vicki Zhao at the helm.There is a plot, and that plot is to drive the main theme of this film that is to showcase to us about how she grew into the character in legends. Whereas the subplot to it is that of her feelings. These feelings are then broken down into different categories, showcasing the main obvious emotional parts of her for the affection that she has for another. While concepts based on being a filial daughter to her father, and loyalty to the fellow troops that she commands and finally patriotism that drives her to do what she does for twelve years are all being explored, minimally but it is enough to drive her overall characterization in just under 2 hours (even though it may seemed longer than that).Having said this, there is no need for me to summarize the film for you readers as that is one of the beauties of storytelling, where it is for the viewers to partake for themselves to let the story be told to you by the story's presentation. And definitely not by me.Overall, if one is into a movie that is emotional (depending on individual's views upon what is regarded as emotional), and does not showcase violence for violence's sake, then i guess one can do themselves the favor of partaking on this trip of 2 hours into another era.Again i must stress, do NOT go into this film hoping to see the likes of battlefield scenes.For me, i would classify this film like the other greats of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; The House of Flying Daggers; Warlords; Musa, and the very recent Red Cliff saga. Jingle Ma's depiction of Mulan has merits all to its own to make it stand among these others.