If you are one of the avid fans of Matt Damon, you will be shocked as he dressed in ambiguously medieval fantasy warrior, slinging arrows at ravening green beasties with a set of eyeballs in their shoulder bones, then The Great Wall is the movie enough for you.
The Great Wall isn't that appalling—you might call it The Not-Bad-at-all. But this highlight for Damon’s versatile talents, and as a piece for the grafted Chinese director Zhang Yimou, this flashy mythical epic isn’t quite the film it should be. It sure is far from handsome alone, throwing off a stately gleam. But that’s most unlikely from owning actual majestic image.
Exploring The New Action-Fantasy Story
Damon stars as William, a European mercenary doing something-or-other in or nearby China. Apparently, he’s been in China a long time, from the looks of his rangy, Middle Earth-style facial hair. Damon is almost identifiable at this point: It’s hard to be certain of there’s a star under all that coat.
One night, the campsite he’s set up with his sidekick Tovar (Pedro Pascal) and few other lads is attacked by a rancorous, unseen creepy-crawly, which William kills. As the creature runs off its death, it leaves behind its enormous chopped-off claw, which William tucks in his bag, “so somebody can tell me what I just killed.”
The action scenes in The Great Wall—including brave soldiers, and William, going in contradiction of those Tao Tei gangs — they are determined and colossal. Theoretically, what I guess is you’d call them well scripted, but there’s magic in them, save for a sequence including a troupe of women warriors known as the Crane Corps, lithe, caped Busby Berkeley-style tumblers sporting precast blue falcon-head helmets.
Held by cables, they lunge down from a formation of thorns over the wall and stab the green-gilled reptilian monster until it's dead. It’s risky work, and some of the Crane Corps end up eaten. But this is one place where director Zhang gets to showcase his gift for mingling color, spectacle, and action.
“The Great Wall” Visual Effects Almost Similar To “Lord Of The Rings”
The Great Wall is a story of a white man who saves the world, though it’s not as if the role had been considered for an Asian actor only to be given to a white one. And as a white male, Damon, a highly likable persona, isn’t a bad at all. But the controversy that bounced up around the picture is descriptive. In the world where hot new info about upcoming Hollywood projects tides into our brain daily, we know how exactly the movies are going to be before we even get to see them.
So many movies seem old news but today we get to experience them all. The big problem with The Great Wall isn’t racism. It’s simply that a production this striving—featuring a charismatic star and a host of tempting and in some cases stunning Chinese actors—should just be better, something more than a Lord of the Rings want-to-be.
