The Great Wall

This review may contain spoilers!

Thank God that white man went to China and saved us from all those lizards years ago, y'know that really famous Chinese/Lizard Great Wall war? You know the one. I would give The Great Wall a 3.5/10.

There's a really interesting grapple between intriguing world-building and exposition in this film; what's good about this is that you can see the potential that the concept had. I think the idea of a unique fantasy battle film that paid particular tribute to Chinese culture, myth and acting is a very valid ambition, it's just a shame that the greater movie was in perpetual conflict with this. The score for the film really heightened the action sequences; there was a classic 'drums of war' vibe to the sound of the film.

Jing Tian, who played Commander Lin Mae, was such a strong commanding presence in this film; Tian brought a headstrong and sure-footed warrior woman to life. Andy Lau, who played Strategist Wang, had a very steady and wise role; this is a role who had to deal with a lot of exposition heavy lines but Lau managed to turn these into brilliant moments of story-telling.

However the best performance came from Pedro Pascal, who played Tovar. Pascal's character is a disgruntled mercenary who doesn't quit complaining or wise-cracking; so it's no shock that he was one of the key sources of entertainment in the film. I appreciated the chemistry Pascal set up between Damon and his' roles, there was some real camaraderie there which lead to some touching scenes and also some tense ones. This role worked deeply within a morally grey space and he openly acknowledges this, I like that he didn't turn out to be a hero but stayed true to being a thief and a friend by the end of the film; it felt like he was one of the more genuine characters this film presented.

There's a point in this film very early on when you understand how ridiculous this film is going to be, it's when you're exposed to all the multi-coloured fighters, outrageous weapons and impending lizard army due to attack the Great Wall. It's a bit of a B-grade blockbuster spin that the film acts revolve around the lizard armies attacking wave after wave. Any time that the film tries to add more detail to itself you're swiftly dealt some heavy-handed exposition. For instance, William's backstory is hastily delivered in one big lump during a dialogue exchange; we never come to understand why he's labelled a thief when really he's just fought to feed himself for all his life. This makes him feel like less of a person and more of a constructed figure for the plot, so you stop caring in his development as a 'hero'. I really couldn't stand how the lizard antagonists of the film had to be some hive mind entity as well, it's such an easy cop out these days for the good guys to 'kill the queen' and save the day from the entire impending bad guy invasion. The cinematography had it's good moments but often moved in a jarring way, particularly doing a bad job at capturing varying perspectives. The special effects were garbage, rather than putting attention to detail the film accepted lower quality CGI so that they could include more; the lizards looked like they had been ripped straight out of a video game animation.

Matt Damon, who played William, is such a bland protagonist that really has no depth to him; Damon's role is labelled a thief throughout this film but it's like the minute he steps onto the Great Wall he has this epiphany he has to be the hero and save everyone - honestly quite a poorly written character. Willem Dafoe, who played Ballard, is up to nothing in this film; he deals a lot of exposition and a side-plot that goes absolutely nowhere. Hanyu Zhang, who played General Shao, is quite a rigid role with no great impact on the plot; his death scene was far too grandiose for his actual contribution to the feature. Lu Han, who played Peng Yong, is the dumb goofy sidekick every B-list blockbuster needs; I honestly have no idea why the film tried to cram the friendly relationship between Damon and him down our throats. Kenny Lin, Eddie Peng and Xuan Huang, who played Commander Chen, Commander Wu and Commander Deng respectively, felt like very basic supporting roles; often playing up the tough guy military persona that has been done a hundred times in the past. Ryan Zheng, who played Shen, came into the film out of nowhere and added very little; his stuck up bureaucrat didn't really sit well amongst the tone of the film. Karry Wang, who played the Emperor, just did not have the persona to match up to his role; there was no feeling of gravitas or importance placed upon him, acted by him or acted towards him at all.