Yoson An Archives – CULTURE MIX

Review: ‘Shadow Force’ (2025), starring Kerry Washington, Omar Sy, Mark Strong, Da’Vine Joy Randolph and Cliff ‘Method Man’ Smith

May 9, 2025

by Carla Hay

Kerry Washington in “Shadow Force” (Photo by Juan Pablo Gutierrez/Lionsgate)

“Shadow Force” (2025)

Directed by Joe Carnahan

Some language in French and German with subtitles

Culture Representation: Taking place in Colombia (and briefly in the United States, Mexico, and Spain), the action film “Shadow Force” features a racially diverse cast of characters (black, white, Asian and Latin) representing the working-class, middle-class and wealthy.

Culture Clash: Two married former mercenaries, who used to work for a U.S. government special operations group called Shadow Force, reunite after spending about five years apart, in order to take down the Shadow Force’s former members and leader, who want to kill the spouses for leaving Shadow Force.

Culture Audience: “Shadow Force” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and stupid action movies that have famous cast members.

Natalia Reyes, Mark Strong and Sala Baker in “Shadow Force” (Photo courtesy of Lionsgate)

That sound you might hear when watching “Shadow Force” is the groan of disappointment that so many talented stars signed up for this awful action flick about two former mercenaries who drag their adorable 5-year-old son into their mess. Lionel Richie’s 1982 hit “Truly” is used as a running joke about sentimentality in the movie. The only “truly” description that applies to this train-wreck film is anything to do with how truly mind-boggling that this level of talent ended up in such low-quality junk.

Directed by Joe Carnahan, “Shadow Force” was written by Leon Chills and Carnahan. The movie takes place mostly in Colombia (where “Shadow Force” was filmed on location), with some scenes taking place briefly in the United States, Mexico, and Spain. Emmy-winning producer Kerry Washington is one of the producers of “Shadow Force,” which unfortunately is a bad investment for her. Her interest in doing this movie seems to be that she wants to showcase that she’s got what it takes to be an action movie star, after being known for mostly starring in dramas and comedies in her career. Washington puts in a good effort when expressing emotions in “Shadow Force,” but she should have chosen a better project, because “Shadow Force” is so horrendous, it’s an embarrassment to everyone involved.

The idiocy in “Shadow Force” begins within the first 10 minutes of the film. Isaac Sarr (played by Omar Sy) is driving to a bank in Miami with his 5-year-old son Ky Sarr (played by Jahleel Kamara), who is a big fan of Lionel Richie’s music. Isaac has been raising Ky as a single parent since Ky was a baby. And where is Ky’s mother, who is still married to Isaac? That information is eventually revealed in the movie.

Isaac and Ky have the misfortune of arriving at the bank just a few minutes before a gang of about 10 armed robbers storm inside and take everyone hostage. One of the robbers holds a gun to Ky’s head. Isaac wears hearing aids, but when he’s about to get in a major brawl, he takes out his hearing aids because he says the reduced noise helps him focus better on the fight. All it looks like is what Tyler Perry as Medea might do when she takes off her earrings before getting into a throwdown.

Isaac tells Ky to close his eyes. Things swirl on the screen and then fade to black. When Isaac tells Ky to open his eyes, Ky sees that all the bank robbers are dead because Isaac killed them all by himself. “Daddy got the bad guys,” Isaac proudly tells Ky. Yes, the movie really is this stupid. It’s also an example of lazy filmmaking to skip over what could have been an intense (although unrealistic) action scene. Isaac and Ky quickly leave the bank before police arrive.

In his rush to be a superhero vigilante, Isaac seems to have forgotten that everything he did in the bank was caught on surveillance video. When you find out that Isaac is supposed to be in hiding, his reckless actions make him look like a moron. This bank robbery massacre makes the news, of course. Jack Cinder, a high-level spy for the U.S. government, sees the surveillance video and immediately recognizes Isaac because he’s been looking for Isaac for the past five years.

And when Jack Cinder sees that Isaac has a son, Jack mutters aloud this realization: “Kyrah got pregnant.” Who is Kyrah? (Her name is pronounced “kye-rah.”) She is Kyrah Owens (played by Washington), who is Ky’s mother and Isaac’s estranged wife. When Ky was a baby, Kyrah left them to go into hiding for Ky’s safety because she thinks the people who want to kill them will assume that she wouldn’t leave Ky.

Why is this family in hiding? In one of the movie’s many exposition dumps, Jack hastily explains to two flunkies named Patrick (played by Marshall Cook) and Parker (played by Ed Quinn) that Jack used to be the leader of a special operations group of mercenaries called Shadow Force. Jack says about Shadow Force: “Basically, we did God’s work around the globe.” Isaac and Kyra were members of Shadow Force, but they broke two of the biggest rules of the group: (1) Don’t get romantically involved with each other and (2) Don’t ever leave the group.

Isaac and Kyra fell in love with each other and went absent without leave around the time that she found out that she was pregnant. They went into hiding and at some point got married. The movie’s main flashback to their early life on the run (before they separated) was when Ky was a baby, and Kyrah told Isaac that she made the difficult decision to go away for Ky’s safety. Kyrah promised that she would eventually return. But after five years of having no contact with Kyrah, Isaac assumed that she wasn’t coming back. Ky was told that Kyrah was “away,” and it was unknown when she would return.

Jack wants revenge because when Isaac and Kyrah quit Shadow Force, the group disbanded. Losing two members of the group who quit made Jack feel humiliated because he perceived it as a failure of his leadership. And now, Jack wants to reunite Shadow Force: “I’m getting the band back together,” he says. The goal of the reunited Shadow Force is to find and murder Isaac, Kyrah and Ky.

There’s an underlying reason why Jack is on this evil vendetta. Years before Kyrah met Isaac, she had a fling with Jack. He wanted a more serious relationship than what Kyrah was willing to give, so she broke up with Jack, who has been bitter about it ever since. Isaac finds out about this love triangle later when Kyrah inevitably reunites with Isaac and Ky. Jack happens to have a private island in Colombia, where he gathers the reunited Shadow Force for secret meetings.

“Shadow Force” has a poorly written subplot about Jack being secretary general of G7, a group of countries (similar to the real-life G10), that have formed an alliance for economic reasons. The only reason why this G7 subplot seems to exist is to show Jack snarling at international leaders during a G7 conference and angrily reminding people not to call him “secretary” but to call him by his full title of “secretary general.” Jack acts more like a crime boss than a busy politician/spy.

The other members of Shadow Force are extremely generic. Anino (played by Jénel Stevens-Thompson), Cysgod (played by Marvin Jones III), Scath (played by Sala Baker), Moriti (played by Natalia Reyes) and Varjo (played by Yoson An) all have names that are more interesting than their blank-void personalities. The movie gives no personal information about these characters, which makes it too easy to predict their fate in this shoddily made film.

There are two other people looking for Isaac: Marvella “Auntie” Clanter (played by Da’Vine Joy Randolph) and Marcus “Unc” Owens (played by Cliff “Method Man” Smith), who are government agents with formerly close ties to Isaac and Kyrah. Auntie and Unc are a sometimes-bickering couple who are work partners and love partners. Unc and Auntie are first seen looking for Isaac at notorious party island Ibiza, Spain, when it just really looks like an excuse for Unc and Auntie to party in an exotic locale. Oscar-winning actress Randolph is doing another sassy character, while Smith continues to be typecast as a character with street smarts who likes to bend the rules.

You can almost do a countdown to all the tiresome and unimaginative things that happen in “Shadow Force,” whose action scenes of shootouts, explosions and fist fights are sloppily choreographed and often look downright ludicrous. There are not-very-surprising double crosses between certain characters. And the dialogue is so putridly horrible, it’s a minor miracle the cast members were able to not laugh when saying unintentionally funny lines of dialogue.

“Shadow Force” is one of those abominable action movies where people get in brutal fights and say they’re going to kill their opponents right away, but then they end up standing around and talking or glaring and each other. One of the worst scenes in the movie is when Jack is at the mercy of a law enforcement agent who has captured and cornered Jack, but the law enforcement agent allows Jack to just walk away, with no explanation. It all just seems to be a way for Jack to have the inevitable showdown with the expected people.

One of the few bright spots in “Shadow Force” is Kamara’s scene-stealing performance as Ky. There’s a cute scene where Ky reveals to Kyrah that Isaac’s favorite song is “Truly,” but Isaac doesn’t want to admit it. It turns out that “Truly” was the theme song for the wedding of Isaac and Kyrah. Kamara has a bright future ahead if he continues to be an actor. He deserves to be in much better movies than “Shadow Force.”

Some of the comedy revolves around Ky saying adult things to demonstrate that he hears things that are inappropriate for children his age. In a very “inside joke” part of the movie, Ky mentions the Wu-Tang Clan, which is the rap group that has “Shadow Force” co-star Smith as member under his rap name Method Man. “You can’t fuck with the Wu-Tang Clan,” Ky chirps, as the adults laugh at the kid’s foul-mouthed comment. Ky also gets some uncomfortable laughs from the adults when the Commodores song “Brick House” (also written by Richie) is played in a scene, Ky blurts out that it’s a song about “breasts and booties.”

Putting all of these kid jokes aside, “Shadow Force” is appallingly inept in showing how Kyrah and Isaac constantly put Ky in danger during the couple’s strategy of “kill or be killed” when dealing with their ex-Shadow Force teammates. The spouses try to cover up the truth and outrght lie to Ky every time the assassins come after them. But by the time Ky is put in a trunk of a car that is shot at, flips over, and crashes into a lake, or when he sees people using military assault rifles all over the place, it’s kind of insulting that anyone would think this kid hasn’t figured out that something is very wrong and that people are trying to kill his parents.

During all of this mayhem, Kyrah and Isaac occasionally speak French to each other, as if that’s supposed to make them look more romantic. It doesn’t. Sy (who has done better work in other movies) is very stiff in his “Shadow Force” role as Isaac. Washington and Sy have lukewarm chemistry together as Kyrah and Isaac and are more convincing as parents to Ky. Strong is just doing another version of the villains that he’s played on screen in many other roles. “Shadow Force” might be slightly entertaining if you enjoy watching mindless movies to laugh at, but the movie is funny for all the wrong reasons, and it’s not so amusing if you’d rather spend your time doing other things.

Lionsgate released “Shadow Force” in U.S. cinemas on May 9, 2025. The movie will be released on digital and VOD on May 30, 2025.

Review: ‘Plane,’ starring Gerard Butler and Mike Colter

January 14, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Plane”

Directed by Jean-François Richet

Culture Representation: Taking place in the Philippines and briefly in Singapore and New York City, the action film “Plane” features a white and Asian cast of characters (with some African Americans and Latinos) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A Scottish-born airplane pilot working for a commercial American airline company leads a rescue mission after a plane that he is piloting makes an emergency landing in a remote jungle in the Philippines, and the survivors are held hostage by a gang of terrorists.

Culture Audience: “Plane” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of star Gerard Butler and well-paced action movies about heroic rescue missions.

Daniella Pineda, Gerard Butler and Yoson An in “Plane” (Photo by Kenneth Rexach/Lionsgate)

As a semi-realistic action movie, “Plane” delivers exactly what it’s supposed to be: pure escapist entertainment full of gripping suspense. The movie has a few twists that don’t make the story as predictable as it could have been. “Plane” isn’t pretending to be award-worthy art, so viewers shouldn’t have those expectations at all.

Directed by Jean-François Richet, “Plane” (whose screenplay was written by Charles Cumming and J.P. Davis) has a somewhat misleading title because most of the action does not take place on a plane. The first third of the movie is about a commercial plane having to make an emergency landing in a remote jungle of the Philippines, due to an electrical malfunction and lightning striking the plane. The rest of the film is about what happens when the surviving passengers and crew members are stranded in the jungle and targeted by a gang of terrorists.

“Plane” begins by showing this ill-fated flight and who is on board for this trip. The fictional airplane company Trailblazer (which is based in New York City) is operating Flight 119, which is going from Singapore, with a planned layover in Tokyo, and then on to Hawaii. (“Plane” was actually filmed in Puerto Rico.) The captain of this flight is Brodie Torrance (played by Gerard Butler), a native of Scotland who has experience flying for the Royal Air Force of the United Kingdom. Brodie is a widower (his wife died three years ago) who lives in Hawaii. He has a daughter named Daniela (played by Haleigh Hekking), who is in her late teens.

It’s New Year’s Eve, and there are only 14 passengers on this flight. The co-pilot is Samuel Dele (played by Yoson An), who is originally from Hong Kong. Samuel is happily married with two pre-teen daughters. The three flight attendants on this trip are Bonnie Lane (played by Daniella Pineda), Maria Falco (played by Amber Rivera) and Isabella Yu (played by Michelle Lee), with Bonnie as the flight attendant who has the most obvious leadership qualities.

Not long before the flight is scheduled to leave, Brodie is informed by the FBI that an agent named Shellback (played by Remi Adeleke) will be boarding with a recently arrested fugitive who was found in Singapore, after the fugitive evaded capture for 15 years. This fugitive, whose name is Louis Gaspare (played by Mike Colter), is an American who is wanted for murder. Louis is brought on board in handcuffs, but Brodie thinks it’s best if the rest of the flight’s crew members do not know the details of why Louis is handcuffed.

Shellback and Louis are seated in the very last row of the plane. The other passengers are scattered in various other seats. Many of these passengers are not given enough screen time or dialogue to have distinguishable personalities. But other passengers stand out and affect certain parts of the story.

Matt Sinclair (played by Joey Slotnick) is an impatient and demanding American in his 50s. Maxwell Carver (played by Oliver Trevena) is a talkative and inquisitive Brit in his 30s. Two women in their 20s are friends and travel companions: Brie (played by Lily Krug) is American, and Katie (played by Kelly Gale) is Swedish. Katie and Brie are both giggly and excited to be on this trip.

While boarding the plane, one of the passengers notices that the plane is an old model and makes a comment about it to Brodie. In a defensive but pleasant tone, Brodie says, “These planes are indestructible.” And when someone in an airplane disaster action movie brags about the plane being indestructible, you know what that means: The plane is going to malfunction.

Even before this happens, there’s tension on the plane because a few of the passengers have noticed that Louis came on board in handcuffs. Brie and Katie were originally assigned to sit in the seats now occupied by Louis and Shellback, but Bonnie discreetly tells Brie and Katie that they have to move a few rows up. When Brie and Katie are seated, they start to take a selfie photo.

However, Louis gets very agitated at the thought of being in the background of their photo, and he barks at them when they’re about to take the picture: “Can you not do that?” Later in the movie, when Maxwell starts making a video recording with his own phone, Louis has an even angrier and more extreme reaction. How much of a loose cannon is Louis? And can he be trusted?

It’s already shown in the “Plane” trailer and other marketing materials that Louis is eventually taken out of his handcuffs to help Brodie in the jungle when the surviving people on the plane come under attack by the gang of terrorists. (Brodie is the one who makes this decision to uncuff Louis.) The leader of the terrorist gang is a ruthless thug named Junmar (played by Evan Dane Taylor), who wants to hold these survivors hostage for big ransom money. It’s something that the gang has done before when visitors have the misfortune of getting stranded in this jungle.

Meanwhile, back at Trailblazer headquarters in New York City, company officials are frantically trying to locate the plane and its occupants, since the plane has dropped off the radar and is considered missing. Trailblazer chief executive Scarsdale (played by Tony Goldwyn) is leading the search-and-rescue efforts. It’s explained in the movie that the Philippines government won’t get involved because the jungle is in a part of the country overrun with terrorists that the Philippines government has given up trying to control. Therefore, Scarsdale makes the decision to hire a private group of mercenaries to help.

“Plane” has some adrenaline-packed action scenes that go in some unexpected directions, while some of the “shoot ’em up” scenes come very close to looking like generic video-game combat. However, the dynamics between Brodie and Louis make “Plane” a little more interesting than the average action flick. There’s nothing particularly special about any of the acting in the film, but no one is outright horrible either. “Plane” is an overall satisfying and serviceable thriller for anyone seeking this type of entertainment.

Lionsgate released “Plane” in U.S. cinemas on January 13, 2023.

Review: ‘Mulan’ (2020), starring Yifei Liu, Donnie Yen, Tzi Ma, Jason Scott Lee, Ron Yuan, Gong Li and Jet Li

September 3, 2020

by Carla Hay

Yifei Liu in “Mulan” (Photo by Jasin Boland/Disney Enterprises Inc.)

“Mulan” (2020)

Directed by Niki Caro

Culture Representation: Taking place in ancient China, the fantasy film remake “Mulan” features an all-Asian cast representing the middle-class, the military and royalty.

Culture Clash: A young woman with superhuman athletic powers disguises herself as a man, in order to fight in China’s Imperial Army, and she experiences sexism as a woman and dangerous conflicts while in combat.

Culture Audience: “Mulan” will primarily appeal people looking for family-friendly movies with a message of female empowerment, but fans of the original “Mulan” might be disappointed by the remake’s lack of humor.

Jason Scott Lee and Gong Li in “Mulan” (Photo courtesy of Film Frame/Disney Enterprises Inc.)

Disney’s re-imagining of its numerous classic animated films has continued with the 2020 live-action version of “Mulan,” which is a very different take on the original 1998 animated “Mulan.” The 2020 version of “Mulan” should be commended for not doing an exact story replica of the original movie, which was the biggest criticism of Disney’s 2019 remake of “The Lion King” that basically did a more technologically updated animated copy of the 1994 classic “Lion King.” Does the remake of “Mulan” have anything groundbreaking? No, but that’s okay if you want to see an escapist film with a positive message about self-confidence and not letting bigotry get in the way of being who are and pursuing your dreams.

The 2020 version “Mulan” (directed by Niki Caro) took some creative risks by retooling the story into a serious action film instead of being a musical with comedic elements, which was the format of the original “Mulan.” But by changing the film’s tone, this “Mulan” remake ends up being a lot more generic than the original version, because the original “Mulan” depicted the characters as having much more distinct personalities. Although the “Mulan” remake is not a depressing movie, there’s very little humor to be found in the story. Much of the charm of the original “Mulan” came from the humorous characters (especially the miniature dragon Mushu, voiced by Eddie Murphy) and how they interacted with Mulan (voiced by Ming-Na Wen in the original film) in her journey to becoming a warrior.

There are no musical numbers, wisecracking sidekicks or talking animals in the 2020 version of “Mulan.” However, the basic story is essentially the same: A young woman named Mulan in ancient China seems fated to follow a traditional life of being a wife and mother. But something happens that changes the course of her destiny: China is attacked by invaders and goes to war, so Mulan disguises herself as a man and enlists in the army so that her father (who has health problems) won’t have to fight in the war. (In the original “Mulan,” the Huns were the war villains; in the remake, the Rourans are the northern invaders.)

In the remake of “Mulan,” this heroine and her family have known about her “superpowers” or “chi” since she was a child, whereas in the original “Mulan,” it took a while for a fumbling and awkward Mulan to become skilled in combat fighting. Because this metamorphosis is removed from the remake, Mulan (played by Yifei Liu) essentially starts off as a superhero, who has to hide her “chi” powers in order to not be vilified as a witch. (In the original “Mulan,” the family surname was Fa, while the family surname is Hua in the remake.)

In the “Mulan” remake, Mulan has a younger sister named Xiu, who’s about four or five years younger than Mulan. Xiu’s only purpose in the movie is to show that Mulan now has a younger female who looks up to her from an early age, whereas in the original movie, Mulan was an only child. (In the “Mulan” remake, Crystal Rao plays the young Mulan, Elena Askin plays the young Xiu, and Xana Tang plays the adult Xiu.) A scene near the beginning of the film shows Mulan, at around the age of 11 or 12, dazzling Xiu with her graceful nimbleness and athletic abilities.

It’s also established early on in the movie that Mulan inherited her chi from her stern but loving father Zhou (played by Tzi Ma), a military veteran who wears a leg brace from an injury he got during a war. (In the original movie, Zhou’s health problems were from natural causes of old age.) Just like in the original movie, the “Mulan” remake has Mulan’s mother Wuwei (played by Rosalind Chao) as essentially a passive supporting character, because Mulan’s father is the parent who has more influence on Mulan.

The patriarchal sexism that Mulan battles against is still the main underlying conflict of the story, while the war is the obvious external conflict. In the movie, Zhou tells Mulan when she’s a child: “Your chi is strong. But chi is for warriors, not daughters … Soon, you’ll be a young woman, and it’s time to hide your gift away, to silence its voice. I say this to protect you. That is my job. Your job is to bring honor to the family. Can you do that?”

In this Chinese society, girls and women are told that they bring honor to the family by finding the right husbands to marry. In the original “Mulan,” there was a feisty and humorous grandmother who was desperate to see Mulan get married. As is the Chinese tradition, Mulan had to see a matchmaker to assess her qualities as a future wife and to discuss possible suitors who would be a good match for her.

There’s no grandmother in the “Mulan” remake. Instead, there’s an uptight, judgmental and humorless matchmaker (played by Pei Pei Chang) who tells Mulan that a good wife must be “quiet, composed, graceful, elegant, poised, polite, silent and invisible.” At first, the matchmaker gives Mulan her approval, by saying that Mulan has all of these qualities. But then, a wayward spider ends up on the table during the meeting, thereby causing a mishap that leads to Mulan’s extraordinary athletic ability becoming exposed.

The matchmaker is horrified that Mulan isn’t a demure and weak young woman, and so she humiliates Mulan by declaring to the family in full view of people in the town square that Mulan has brought dishonor to her family. Soon after this debacle, representatives from China’s Imperial Army come to the area to declare that each family must volunteer an adult male to serve in the war.

Zhou volunteers, since he is the only adult male in the family, but Mulan is worried that because of his leg disability, he won’t be able to survive the war. When she expresses her concerns to her father, Zhoe shows his patriarchal ego when he lectures Mulan: “It is my job to bring honor to this family. You are the daughter. Learn your place!”

The original “Mulan” had a somewhat iconic scene of Mulan cutting off a lot of her hair in order to disguise herself as a man. There’s no such hair-cutting scene in the “Mulan” remake, which is the movie’s subtle but feminist way of saying that this version of Mulan isn’t going to cut her hair for anyone. Instead, the movie abruptly shows Mulan with her hair in a bun, and she’s already disguised in her armor and taking her father’s lucky sword before she leaves home without her family’s knowledge or consent. The family figures out what happens when they find out that Mulan and the sword have disappeared.

Since the remake doesn’t have any scenes of Mulan fumbling her way through learning combat skills as a new soldier, her discomfort mainly comes from trying to hide her superpowers and her real gender, as well adjusting to being in an all-male environment for the first time in her life. In the original “Mulan,” Mulan used the name Ping as her male alias, whereas her male alias in the “Mulan” remake is Jin.

Mulan/Jin is immediately picked on by a soldier named Honghui (played by Yoson An), who wants to be the alpha male of the new recruits. Honghui’s bullying tactics are a way to test people on their physical and emotional strength. And because he’s singled out Mulan in their first encounter, it’s the obvious cue that he’s going to be Mulan’s love interest when he founds out her real gender. (It’s not a spoiler that Mulan’s true identity is eventually revealed, since it’s in the movie’s trailer and it’s a well-known part of the movie’s plot.) However, people looking for a romantic love story won’t find it in this movie.

Mulan/Jin and Honghui eventually become part of a tight-knit clique of other soldiers that includes macho Yao (played by Chen Tang); romantic Ling (played by Jimmy Wong); mild-mannered Po (played by Doua Moua); and goofy Cricket (played Jun Yu), who’s sometimes the butt of the group’s jokes. Other members of the Imperial Army are Commander Tung (played by Donnie Yen) and Sergeant Qiang (played by Ron Yuan). Commander Tung tells the soldiers that stealing, desertion and consorting with women are punishable by death, while dishonesty is punishable by expulsion.

The “Mulan” remake has definitely more of a female focus than the original, not just because it does away with Mulan having a male sidekick but also how it portrays the movie’s villains. The head of the Rouran invaders is Böri Khan (played by Jason Scott Lee), who gets a lot less screen time than his (literal) wing woman Xianniang (played by Gong Li), a powerful “witch” who can shapeshift into a hawk.

The purpose of Xianniang (a character that wasn’t in the original “Mulan” movie) is to show a parallel between her experiences of being an outcast in China because she’s a powerful woman and the similar experiences that Mulan could go through if it’s revealed that she’s a woman with superpowers. One of the movie’s most memorable scenes is when Xianniang and Mulan cross paths as enemies, but Mulan finds out that they have more in common with each other than Mulan would like to admit.

Mulan thinks Xianniang is foolish for aligning herself with a “coward” like Böri Khan. But Mulan is also in service of men who are in charge, so is Mulan’s situation all that different? The decisions made by the men in charge of the Imperial Army, including the Emperor (played by Jet Li), ultimately decide whether or not Mulan will be accepted for who she is or if she’ll be vilified and cast out from society. The outcome is extremely predictable, but this is a fantasy film that’s not trying to pretend to be historically accurate.

The screenplay for the 2020 remake of “Mulan” was written by Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Lauren Hynek and Elizabeth Martin, and was inspired by the narrative poem “The Ballad of Mulan.” Some people might say that the “Mulan” remake is more “feminist” than the original “Mulan,” because Mulan is aware of her superpowers from an earlier age, she doesn’t have a “Prince Charming” type of romance, and because the movie has the addition of the powerful female character Xianniang. The filmmakers of the “Mulan” remake seem to understand that feminism isn’t about male-bashing but about people of any gender not being discriminated against because of their gender.

The real world doesn’t always work in a fair and unbiased way, but the message of the movie that’s very realistic is that people can’t overcome gender discrimination obstacles by themselves. In order for real change to be made, enough people (include the right people in power) must make those changes. And if a woman can fight in an army of men, there’s no reason for her to not be able to rescue them too.

Visually, the “Mulan” remake is not a masterpiece, but it gets the job done well in all the right places. The main way that the movie lags is how the personalities of the characters are watered-down from the original “Mulan” movie. All of the actors in the movie do the best with what they’ve been given, but there doesn’t seem to be much depth to any of the predictable characters of the film, except for tormented soul Xianniang.

It’s implied that Xianniang pledged allegiance to Böri Khan because he was the only person who offered her a sense of belonging and family after she became an outcast. He uses her insecurities about being alone in the world to continue to manipulate her emotionally and maintain her loyalty. The “Mulan” remake obviously wanted a more serious tone than the original “Mulan,” so the movie could have benefited from a deeper exploration of this complicated alliance between Böri Khan and Xianniang.

The “Mulan” remake delivers exactly what you would expect from this type of Disney film. The inspirational story, engaging visuals and well-choreographed action sequences are good enough to make this a crowd-pleasing movie for the intended audience. However, many scenes in the remake of “Mulan” look derivative of better-made war movies that have been filmed in a much more majestic way. And if you’re looking for a movie worthy of several Oscar nominations, then this “Mulan” remake is not that movie.

Disney+ will premiere “Mulan” on September 4, 2020. From September 4 to December 3, 2020, the movie has an additional, one-time fee that allows Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. to see the movie on demand for an unlimited time during the Disney+ subscription. As of December 4, 2020, Disney+ subscribers in the U.S. do not have to pay this additional fee to see the movie. Information on additional fees for “Mulan” might vary in countries where Disney+ is available.