The monsters, Tao Tei, are the results from a meteor and they attack every sixty years. They are taken prisoners as they witness the Chinese Nameless Order defend the wall against a horde of monsters. Survivors Tovar and William (Matt Damon) cut off the monster's hand and arrive at the Great Wall of China. After the lost of twenty men over six months, they are attacked by raiders and then a monster. THE GREAT WALL is a simple action romp, nothing less and nothing more, and yet it held my attention throughout and offered up something genuinely new.Įuropean mercenaries travel east searching for the secrets of black powder. Willem Dafoe has fun as a shadier character, while Tian Jing is one of those typical idealistic young Chinese girls, a martial arts expert and endlessly heroic.
Pedro Pascal is the comic relief, building on his GAME OF THRONES role. Matt Damon is the solid, sometimes stolid, lead, his accent wavering between American and pan Scottish-Irish. Famed director Zhang Yimou has a really great way of depicting colour in his films and this is a beautiful one to watch, particularly with those multi-coloured stained glass windows at the climax. The CGI creatures look decent in a comic book style and the big battle sequences are exciting and well-staged.
It's nothing more than a light popcorn film, full of spectacle and not much else, and that's fine by me. This is one of those films that was heavily criticised by reviewers, unfairly so in my opinion. As an international production, this features a Hollywood lead cast and a supporting Chinese cast, with the great Andy Lau playing in support as a wise elder. THE GREAT WALL is the latest big collaboration between Hollywood and China, telling a LORD OF THE RINGS-style fantasy epic about the defenders of the Great Wall against a horde of alien beasts bent on destruction.
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