Movie Review: The Great Wall
The only thing I knew before seeing The Great Wall was that Matt Damon stars in it, and it was filmed entirely in China; also, that it involved monsters of some sort. I ended up being pleasantly surprised by the movie, and the 3D in the film was fantastic as well.
William (Damon) and his friend Bouchard (Pilou Asbaek, Game of Thrones) are hoping to steal some black powder—a valuable weapon—from the Chinese. However, the Chinese find the two of them before they make it to the Chinese army's headquarters, and they turn themselves in. When the Chinese are attacked by monsters, however, and William and Bouchard help fight them, the Chinese commander, Lin Mae (Tian Jing), realizes that they have skills that she can use, so she releases them. William wants to help slay the monsters, though, so he stays behind, even after Bouchard tries to betray him, as well as the Chinese.
Matt Damon was unrecognizable at the beginning of this film—he had a large amount of facial hair, as well as long hair, since he and Bouchard had been trudging through the lands for quite some time—but soon after, he cleans up (and rocks a man bun, too, I must say). Willem Dafoe has a small role here as well, as someone who has been staying with the Chinese for the past 25 years, but whom would love to grab some black powder for himself and vamoose. Tian Jing has a great role here, as the commander (and later general) of her army, who wants to defeat the monsters, and although I thought she and Damon would eventually become romantic interests, they (semi-spoiler) never do, which I actually kind of liked; the movie went against stereotypes for doing that.
Yes, see this movie, and see it in 3D if you do - the 3D was the best I've seen recently, and the monsters literally fly off the screen, as well as the arrows that are used to attack them. The film kind of felt like Jurassic Park set in Asia, actually, and although the monsters aren't anything new or novel-looking, they look quite ferocious; even though this movie is rated PG-13, I'd recommend it for older teens if younger teens get scared easily. Although the dialogue in the movie (in between flying arrows) wasn't the best, it wasn't the worst, either, and really, we aren't here for the dialogue ... we're here for the action, and to see Matt Damon + co. take down some
The Great Wall is in theaters today, February 17th, and is rated PG-13 with a runtime of 103 minutes. 4 stars out of 5.
