The Great Wall

The Great Wall is a simple movie hiding behind grand ambitions.  It's directed by the acclaimed Chinese filmmaker, Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern, House of Flying Daggers, and Hero), making his English language debut.  It's a joint production between Hollywood and China, with its $150 million budget making it the most expensive movie to be made in Chinese history.  It has scenes awash of color and a cast of literal hundreds.  But strip away all the prestige, and what you have is a simple monster movie, and not a very interesting one at that.

Oh, you can see every dollar that went into this project right there on the screen.  It's there in the gobs of special effects, massive sets, lavish costumes, and of course, Matt Damon in the lead role.  He's here mostly because he's a bankable star in just about any territory the movie will play in.  It certainly can't be because of the role he's playing, because the movie gives him little to do for large chunks.  He plays William Garin, a mercenary from the West who has come to China seeking the elusive "black powder" (that's gun powder to you and me) that he's heard could help change the course of all wars.  William is accompanied by Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal), who mostly acts as comic relief.  There is a lot of banter between the two, but it's weak and not very convincing.  It almost sounds like "Comic Banter 101"-level writing.  They're constantly acting like they're in a buddy comedy, while everyone around them acts like they're in a serious Chinese epic.  Mind you, a "serious" Chinese epic that involves the Great Wall being placed under attack by mystical monsters that look like dinosaurs.

Our two heroes arrive at the Great Wall, and are captured by the border guards.  They're the Nameless Order, who are led by General Shao (Zhang Hanyu) and Commander Lin Mae (Jing Tian).  Before long, William is forging a relationship with the strong but beautiful Lin Mae, learning about her ways, and discovering that there is more to life than making a profit.  Pero, meanwhile, seems to be siding with the one other Westener who is living within the Nameless Order's fortress.  That would be Ballard (Willem Dafoe), who is also there for the "black powder", and thinks he knows a way how they can take all they want and escape.  Supposedly, much of Dafoe's performance wound up on the cutting room floor, so he doesn't make much of an impression.  Instead, we get a lot of scenes of William and Lin Mae giving each other "meaningful glances", and talking about things like trust and loyalty.

If only William and Pero had picked a better time to visit.  You see, it turns out the Great Wall is under attack by some monsters called the Tao Tei, who appear every 60 years to feast upon humans in order to feed their Queen.  William's arrival comes at the same time as the latest wave of attacks, so we get a lot of scenes of hundreds of CG lizard-like creatures swarming the land and the Wall itself like bugs.  Fortunately, it turns out William is pretty handy with a bow and arrow, and helps the army out with a lot of CG-assisted stunt work and fighting.  To be fair, many of the big battle scenes are beautifully shot and staged, as is to be expected from Yimou.  But unlike his more famous films, there is nothing behind the images.  This is a soulless Hollywood effects machine, created with little care for coherence or character.

The Great Wall is a movie that should be more fun than it is, and obviously wants to be.  I mean, it tries to have a sense of humor to itself at times, and it certainly tries to be a spectacle.  But outside of a few memorable images (my favorites coming near the end when the Nameless Order fly to a major city on hot air balloons), there is just not enough here that stands out.  This was designed to be a cross-cultural blockbuster, and it shows in just about every way.  It's a total commercial product, made entirely out of elements that would appeal to wide audiences on both sides of the ocean.  And yet, when the movie came out in China a couple months ago, it received mixed to negative reviews (many of which were denounced by the Chinese government).  I'm not sure of the film's box office prospects on this side of the world, but I can't see many people flocking to this.

For all of its crowd pleasing ambitions, the movie simply doesn't deliver.  Fans of Matt Damon will be disappointed that his performance is somewhat lifeless here.  He's not terrible, but he's certainly not as charismatic as he has been in the past.  His large cast of Chinese co-stars come off a bit better, but again, they're not really given very deep characters to play here.  Jing Tian as his main co-star is beautiful and has a strong screen presence, but gets no real notable scenes during the entire film.  Those looking of a beautiful Chinese epic will be let down by how much it ignores the history of the Wall itself (despite the title), and how it focuses almost entirely on battles with fantastic monsters.  So, let's say you come to the movie for the fantastic monsters.  Again, don't get your hopes up.  They're kind of fun to watch at first, but they ultimately come across as a faceless horde that act like targets in a video game.

So, who is The Great Wall made for?  Despite this being an overly calculated production that's been designed to be a crowd pleaser in every sense of the word, I honestly can't say.  The movie's not unwatchable by any means, and it has some lovely sights, but there's just so little under the surface.  But, given the talent and the money involved, you might be expecting more.  And you should.

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