Starring: Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe
Director: Yimou Zhang
If you’ve ever wondered why the Chinese built their Great Wall, and then Googled it, thought the real history was boring, and wanted more dragons, then this film is for you.
Which is crazy, because the real history of the Great Wall is a fascinating story of passion, power and blood. What’s wrong with you?
This Great Wall, then, is about two mercenaries who head to China in search of gunpowder, which they plan to sell for big bucks for their wars, but they find themselves caught up in the events in China. Which involve warriors building a huge wall to keep out these massive demons than plan to attack and lay waste to China. Those mercenaries are played by Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe, and they make friends with Commander Lin Mae, played by the lovely Tian Jing, who has major fighting prowess but gets sidelined because she’s of the female persuasion.
It’s one of those love/hate things with the guy and the girl, and his sidekick is meant to have great banter with him, and there’s also the fact that he initially is using her but changes his mind, but then she finds out kind of drama. But it all feels pretty standard. The best bits, of course, are when people fight monsters in pitched battles, flying around with swords in epic outfits, many of them dying horrible deaths. Those parts are fun.
It just feels like a by the numbers film, there’s no real heart. It feels a bit cheesey, a bit thrown together. It’s bland. So it’s one of those films that I don’t really recommend, even though I usually quite like Damon and Dafoe in films. But some of you may get a kick out of the massive CGI and the battles. Nothing wrong with that.
See It If: hmmm. See it if you really want to. It’s not historically accurate, it’s not that entertaining, but some of you may get a kick out of the fight scenes.
Wildfire Movies 
Fight scenes are fun, Matt Damon is dependable, the visuals are stunning. Fun for monster action movie fans.
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Hilarious! I think I’ll skip it…
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Yeah…. I don’t think you’ll like this one…
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This movie looked amazing! I’ll definitely check it out 🙂
Keri Elaine
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Not historically accurate?! I don’t know about that. As the great Ed Wood once said: Can you prove that it didn’t happen?
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Ha ha! Valid point!!
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I enjoyed it because I could just turn off my brain and enjoy the visuals of the film. The spectacle was great, but as you said, the relationships were a bit formulaic. Still I had fun with it.
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I think that’s kind of what this film is meant to be, you know? A kind of switch off and go with it entertainer.
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That’s all some movies need to be, and are supposed to be.
That’s why they’re fun! Unfortunate when a film doesn’t realize it’s supposed to be one of the fun ones though…
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Ha ha! Yes, I agree.
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I am not going out of my way to see this one, but I will see it at some point. I’m a huge all things Asian fan, so for that alone I will watch it. But I am not expecting a lot from this film, especially not considering the not too positive reviews. But still, sometimes a by the numbers movie can have a few entertaining parts in it. Great post as always 😀
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I think you’ll find things in this film that you really like, tbh. I think the fight scenes and costumes, style, you’ll get a kick out of them. ❤️
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I love Matt’s dubious expression in that top still.
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Ha ha! Poor Matt. 😂
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