For all the thrills provided by its pioneering pageantry, the film leaves you with a soul-nagging query: What price entertainment?
As much money as Disney has thrown at the production, it still looks like it was always bound for streaming services.
The film follows a young Chinese woman who disguises herself as a warrior in order to spare her ailing father from war.
It can’t tell whether it wants to be junk food or not, lovingly poking fun at some Hollywood tropes while shamelessly indulging others.
This is a summer blockbuster contingent on grand bargains, tactical retreats, and a ferocious, inevitable shock-and-awe campaign.
Faced with the horror of half-assed material from which he can’t escape, James Franco allows himself to be steamrolled by his pet monkey.