The Great Wall - Review

Release Date: ​February 17, 2017

Matt Damon and Who?

The Great Wall symbolizes Hollywood’s olive branch to China, to makes sure they can keep making money. Not only was the movie majorly financed in China, but the director of the movie is from China as well. These tid bits might not seem that important, but they all play a huge part in contributing to the final product of the movie.

The first thing to point out, is the approach the movie takes to storytelling. It’s choppy and there doesn’t seem to be a true linear objective other than the obvious, protect the wall. For an action movie, this movie needs way more action. This movie was supposed to meld the two big movie worlds together; the grey “realism” of western movies with the colorful beauty of asian movies. This movie somehow accomplishes to make sure neither aspect is fully realised and just seems to be a waste of potential. There was beautiful color, there was an ample amount of grey, but they didn’t flow together. I blame the script, the actors, and the director for this waste of time.

There is not much to say about The Great Wall because there is not much to talk about. It’s another white savior film through and through. The white guy is the only one that can save this people, and he does. The acting is not convincing, the dialogue is poor, and the visuals are average. It seems like the director, who has previously only made asian movies, didn’t have the say or the know how to make this movie work. Characters do things that are questionable and some don’t seem like they are needed. I can’t even remember the names of any of the characters. There is slight enjoyment from the movie, but not much. It’s still better than the new Rings movie that came out earlier this month, but not by much.

Overall, Hollywood dropped the ball with this movie due to its lack of focus. The movie tried to be too many things at once. It wanted to convey a message but didn’t give it any emotion or emphasis. There was really no reason for this movie to exist, go watch something else.

                                     6.5/10
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