The Great Wall

RATING: C+

As far as fantasy action films go, I'll admit that a movie set in the 11th century about the Chinese army plus Matt Damon fighting a bunch of monsters that doesn't appear to have much else to it isn't exactly gonna get me running to the theater. It's unsurprising then, that this film was kind of left in the dust. Because it was pretty doggone difficult to market and make it look actually original or special or *something.* 

The plot for this film is pretty basic, as mentioned earlier. It centers around a large Chinese military using the Great Wall of China as the main line of defense against a bunch of monsters who attack once every 60 years. If you're hoping to learn more about them, forget it: all we ever find out about them is they first emerged after a weird meteor apparently sent by the gods (or something) struck the Earth. This said military is joined by a couple of random mercenaries--William Garin (Matt Damon and Pero Tovar--whose initial mission in the general area was searching for black gunpowder. And yeah, that's pretty much all there is to it. 

What then, could possibly be actually that good about this film? Well, we'll give much of the props to director Zhang Yimou--who's apparently pretty popular in Chinese circles, but this looks to be his most well known venture elsewhere in the world (it's his first film in English). He has a flair for creating some pretty good looking action sequences, with some excellent cinematography around them and an impressive amount of detail. Despite letting up a bit in pacing during the third act initially, it redeems itself with a gorgeous-to-watch climax. Another quite memorable action scene includes a ground battle against a few monsters surrounded by fog, 

It is kind of unfortunate that other areas of the movies struggle a bit more. As mentioned previously, we never find out much about these monsters. We also don't find out a whole lot about Matt Damon's almost-impossibly-good-at-archery character--it's hinted he has a dark past and that he can't change that easily, but that is never really fleshed out and he does go heroic pretty easily. Also, Willem Dafoe is in this movie. And while his acting is good per the usual, his character sadly feels pretty pointless. Most of the characters in general really just aren't that memorable. 

As for the casting, Damon and Dafoe do well as the two main big stars of the group. Aside from Pedro Pascal, the entire rest of the cast is unsurprisingly Chinese. Thus, most American viewers will probably recognize none of them. Jing Tian and Andy Lau are the ones with the most screen time, and both do quite well. Tian is apparently going to be in more Hollywood movies (Kong: Skull Island already and Pacific Rim 2 next year), so watch out for her. This might be the only time some see the rest of the actors however, depending upon how much Chinese cinema they watch. 

Despite me not expecting much from it, I still feel like it actually could've been even better with some more fleshing out of the characters and the lore behind the story. It actually could've been pretty good with some work. I almost want to call it a wasted effort, but I was pretty entertained most of the way through, and the spectacle was still quite fun to watch regardless. All things considered, I'd say that's a bit of a victory itself.