2020 has been an all-around bad year and the new “Mulan” movie hasn’t made it any better. On Sept. 4, Disney bypassed theaters to release the 2020 remake of the animated classic on Disney+ with Premier Access. 

The story is about Mulan (Liu Yife) who takes her father’s (Tzi Ma) place in the Imperial Army when it is demanded each household sends one man. Mulan, being a woman, pretends to be a man to ensure that her family is safe and no dishonor falls upon them. Eventually, her identity is found out and she’s forced out of the army. Later on, she ends up saving the Emperor and China while embracing who she truly is, bringing honor to her family.

The 2020 remake has several nods to the 1998 animated film, including speaking various lyrics, naming a character Cricket, and several other examples. When they speak different lyrics from the animated film, it seems very forced and out of place compared to the animated film. I constantly tried to think of the film as a completely separate film but the constant nods reminded me this was a remake of a story from my childhood.

Along with those strange nods, the film has several questionable editing choices. For one thing, slow-motion is excessive throughout the movie. Slow-motion appears several times throughout fight scenes, which gets annoying considering I believe slow-motion is associated with cool or important moments to put them apart from the rest of the film. It’s difficult to be impressed or anticipate what comes next if slow-motion is overused in every fight scene. They also added a blur effect that makes the movie more difficult to watch. My overall enjoyment of the film was constantly brought down by these editing choices.

To top everything off, the character development was poor. Often in movies, you feel a bit of sympathy for the characters when things get rough, but in “Mulan,” every time something bad happened to her or another one of the characters, I didn’t feel sympathy. In the entirety of the film, I learned nothing about Mulan besides her wanting to fight but not being allowed to.There isn’t much to her character that isn’t based around fighting and her family, who have little screen time.

The film sparked controversy after Yife, the lead in the film, posted her support of the police in Hong Kong, effectively posting against the pro-democracy protestors. Her post has been the cause of people calling upon others to boycott the film. 

Preparing to watch the film, I was ready to be disappointed. I was even more disappointed than what I expected to be. The movie had the potential to be as good as other remakes such as “Maleficent.” The editing choices, removal of fan-favorite characters such as Mushu and Li Shang, and poor character development sadly made it nearly impossible to meet the same bar. 

The movie was neither the best nor worst movie I’ve sat through in the last few years, but it’s down there. I suggest you avoid watching this movie; it’s a waste of time. Though if you feel like you absolutely have to watch the movie, it will be streaming on Disney+ in a few months for no extra cost.