Remember This? The Great Wall
Director - Zhang Yimou
Writers - Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, Tony Gilroy, Max Brooks, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz
Starring - Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau
Remember earlier this year when Matt Damon was the lead in a big $150 million Chinese blockbuster about The Great Wall of China? No? Really? Jimmy Kimmel even joked about it at the Oscars. Well you missed out on Matt Damon fighting evil green demon dogs alongside a bright and colourful Chinese army. It isn't even as bad as you think it is. Matt Damon doesn't completely save the Chinese by himself. Jing Tian helps him! Or more accurately, they help each other. Xin Ren and all that. Well spoilers! The humans win! Anyways, this movie was a massive hit in China and made basically nothing in North America which is not entirely surprising. I'm pretty sure they don't go ga-ga for our mythological films (checks box office gross of that King Arthur movie, yup, they did not go for that) so it's quite logical that a film heavily rooted in Chinese legend would make very little impact in North America.
The Great Wall has several things going for it. First of all, it generally looks stunning. The warriors are outfitted in bright, flashy suits of armor. The battle scenes are filmed with a sense of grace and awe. It just tries to mash this aesthetic with the grimy, dirty, dark North American blockbuster look for its Western stars. Zhang Yimou's strengths lie in the grand, wuxia-inspired battles, sets and costumes in which he has experience (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). The Chinese cast is generally strong led by Jing Tian as Commander Lin, the most trusted commander in General Shao's Nameless Order. She provides a strong presence to play Damon off of and neatly plays all the facets of her role as it expands throughout the course of the film. Pedro Pascal carries over the charm from Game of Thrones as Damon's friend and ally who represents the greedier side of Western culture.
The good is largely on display in the first battle scene at the Wall. The Nameless Order defends against an assault from a large host of demons in a vaguely canine form. This battle feels like the bastard stepchild of Helm's Deep and the entirety of Mad Max: Fury Road. It combines the overwhelming odds of an outnumbered army defending itself against a large demonic force (yes, I know Orcs aren't demons, but whatever). The breakdown of the battle feels similar to Helm's Deep in the clear separation of the main characters and their actions among their fellow soldiers. This is especially evident in William (Damon) and Tovar's (Pascal) part in the battle as Yimou manages the deftly weave their small scale struggle with the larger army-sized battle surrounding them.
Yimou also aims for the poetic, chaotic granduer of Fury Road with this scene. Fusing multiple exotic elements together to create a violent ballet, Yimou succeeds at crafting the same rush George Miller created with his 2015 action masterpiece. Melding fire-ball trebuchets, archers, bungee-cord spearwomen and a phalanx of traditional soldiers, Yimou has a diverse set of warriors with which to craft a memorable battle scene against a largely homogeneous enemy. I say largely homogeneous because the arrival of the queen demon and her cohorts deftly raises the stakes of the battle and injects another shot of adrenaline.
Looking back on that scene I am amazed it is only 4 minutes in length. It accomplishes so much in so little time, it is quite frustrating that the rest of this (relatively) short film feels so dragged out. The army of screenwriters use William as an exposition board as various Chinese characters constantly explain situations to him. This in itself is not a terrible idea but the level of exposition is incredibly poor. Things are explained multiple times and still fail to register. Some of the explanations just end up raising more questions (eg just how strong are the demon dogs?). Because the script is seemingly in a hurry to finish (the movie is 90 minutes without credits) basically ever Chinese character other than Lin is reduced to a singular characteristic which flattens any sort of impact they are meant to have in the later parts of the film. William and Tovar get appropriately fleshed out, as does Sir Ballard (Dafoe) but William is the only one to receive any sort of actual story arc.
And for all the greatness Yimou builds up with the first battle scene, he really only receives one chance to properly build on it (the scene where they attempt to capture a dog) with further action coming across as generic big budget CGI action and basically lifeless. Actually you know what, I'm going to kinda spoil part of this film because it's so preposterous and you're not going to watch it anyways. So the movie is called The Great Wall. All the characters are at the Wall. After a couple attacks what do the dog monsters do? They dig a tunnel under the Wall and completely skip it. It's just so weird to do that. The reveal of the tunnel is actually pretty funny. The Great Wall is kinda like its plot. Starts strong and tries hard but then gives up all effort and just streamlines itself.
Schurmann Score - 5/10
Be sure to like Schurmann Film on Facebook to keep up to date on all things Schurmann Film.
You know what. Here's that action scene. You're welcome
The Great Wall has several things going for it. First of all, it generally looks stunning. The warriors are outfitted in bright, flashy suits of armor. The battle scenes are filmed with a sense of grace and awe. It just tries to mash this aesthetic with the grimy, dirty, dark North American blockbuster look for its Western stars. Zhang Yimou's strengths lie in the grand, wuxia-inspired battles, sets and costumes in which he has experience (Hero, House of Flying Daggers). The Chinese cast is generally strong led by Jing Tian as Commander Lin, the most trusted commander in General Shao's Nameless Order. She provides a strong presence to play Damon off of and neatly plays all the facets of her role as it expands throughout the course of the film. Pedro Pascal carries over the charm from Game of Thrones as Damon's friend and ally who represents the greedier side of Western culture.
The good is largely on display in the first battle scene at the Wall. The Nameless Order defends against an assault from a large host of demons in a vaguely canine form. This battle feels like the bastard stepchild of Helm's Deep and the entirety of Mad Max: Fury Road. It combines the overwhelming odds of an outnumbered army defending itself against a large demonic force (yes, I know Orcs aren't demons, but whatever). The breakdown of the battle feels similar to Helm's Deep in the clear separation of the main characters and their actions among their fellow soldiers. This is especially evident in William (Damon) and Tovar's (Pascal) part in the battle as Yimou manages the deftly weave their small scale struggle with the larger army-sized battle surrounding them.
Yimou also aims for the poetic, chaotic granduer of Fury Road with this scene. Fusing multiple exotic elements together to create a violent ballet, Yimou succeeds at crafting the same rush George Miller created with his 2015 action masterpiece. Melding fire-ball trebuchets, archers, bungee-cord spearwomen and a phalanx of traditional soldiers, Yimou has a diverse set of warriors with which to craft a memorable battle scene against a largely homogeneous enemy. I say largely homogeneous because the arrival of the queen demon and her cohorts deftly raises the stakes of the battle and injects another shot of adrenaline.
Looking back on that scene I am amazed it is only 4 minutes in length. It accomplishes so much in so little time, it is quite frustrating that the rest of this (relatively) short film feels so dragged out. The army of screenwriters use William as an exposition board as various Chinese characters constantly explain situations to him. This in itself is not a terrible idea but the level of exposition is incredibly poor. Things are explained multiple times and still fail to register. Some of the explanations just end up raising more questions (eg just how strong are the demon dogs?). Because the script is seemingly in a hurry to finish (the movie is 90 minutes without credits) basically ever Chinese character other than Lin is reduced to a singular characteristic which flattens any sort of impact they are meant to have in the later parts of the film. William and Tovar get appropriately fleshed out, as does Sir Ballard (Dafoe) but William is the only one to receive any sort of actual story arc.
And for all the greatness Yimou builds up with the first battle scene, he really only receives one chance to properly build on it (the scene where they attempt to capture a dog) with further action coming across as generic big budget CGI action and basically lifeless. Actually you know what, I'm going to kinda spoil part of this film because it's so preposterous and you're not going to watch it anyways. So the movie is called The Great Wall. All the characters are at the Wall. After a couple attacks what do the dog monsters do? They dig a tunnel under the Wall and completely skip it. It's just so weird to do that. The reveal of the tunnel is actually pretty funny. The Great Wall is kinda like its plot. Starts strong and tries hard but then gives up all effort and just streamlines itself.
Schurmann Score - 5/10
Be sure to like Schurmann Film on Facebook to keep up to date on all things Schurmann Film.
You know what. Here's that action scene. You're welcome
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