The Great Wall Reviews

To be honest, I wasn't really expecting much from this flick but since I have a weak spot for Matt Damon, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, unfortunately, it turned out to be indeed pretty weak, I'm afraid. Basically, the whole thing was a rather pathetic attempt to deliver a movie that could be a major blockbuster in China but also in the rest of the world. Eventually, nobody cared much for the damned thing. I mean, it was a pretty cool idea to have Zhang Yimou, one of the most famous Chinese directors, working on a huge epic with Matt Damon, after all, the guy had made 'Hero' and 'House of Flying Daggers' which were pretty awesome. However, the fact that the damned thing had been written by 6 American guys was not really a good omen though. And, indeed, the writting was probably the weakest point in this flick. As long as they focused on the Chinese characters, it was nothing really amazing but, at least, it was watchable and the costumes and set design were also pretty awesome. However, each time they focused on Matt Damon's character, it never really worked. Indeed, as usual with Yimou, the Chinese characters didn't elaborate much about themselves or anything in general which made them intriguing but, every 30 secondes, you would have either Matt Damon or Pedro Pascal giving their analysis as if they were commenting a football game which was just so annoying. The fact that Damon gave here one of his weakest performances didn't help either. Seriously, if they would have made this movie without the Western characters, the whole thing would have been vastly improved. Anyway, I guess my rating might be rather generous here, somehow, I still think the damned thing had some potential but there is no doubt that it was a failure. 

Well the goods news is this movie is not white washing as people claimed it was, after all it was only 3 white guys (two Caucasians and one Latin to exact) but it seem to suffer of monster washing instead, or as my friends would call it dynasty warriors vs ailens.


William is a thief looking for gun powder in the east with his amigo Tovar. While searching in the middle of nowhere they get attacked by mysterious creatures some sort of monsters. But luckily they got rescued by the powerful army of the Great Wall. There they meet another foreigner Ballard who is also searching for the powder, will they betray the army who rescued them?


Is it bad as people claim it to be?

Yes it's bad but not bad as people claimed it to be white washing. It's more bad that is a guilty pleasure , but I don't understand the idea with the monsters and the effect was poorly done, if they were dragons I could accept it better, but alien creatures with eyes on the shoulders that is a kindergartner level of script idea.

I give it though 3 out of 10 though because it has it moments but too ridiculously bad story.

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When a mercenary warrior (Matt Damon) is imprisoned within the Great Wall, he discovers the mystery behind one of the greatest wonders of the world. As wave after wave of marauding beasts besiege the massive structure, his quest for fortune turns into a journey toward heroism as he joins a huge army of elite warriors to confront the unimaginable and seemingly unstoppable force.