The Great Wall
The Great Wall is junk. It is Hong Kong action masquerading as Hollywood action. Lots of it doesn’t make sense as a Hollywood movie. It makes complete sense as a Hong Kong movie. How did we get this in the West?
Matt Damon is in pursuit of the fabled ‘black powder,’ and he stumbles upon the Great Wall. It is meant to keep an alien horde out of China and it protects the world. The Chinese have been training for years in color coded teams to defeat these aliens. Matt Damon has gotten himself into the war of the worlds. Can he get himself out?
It’s like Matt Damon was slumming. Did he need the money? I know that the director, Yimou Zhang, did a few well received movies, like House of the Flying Daggers and Hero, from the silver age of Hong Kong movies in Hollywood in the early 2000s. This one feels like he didn’t need the artiness of those previous ones and he’ll make a film with dragons.
It was alright. I think I want to see those classic supernatural kung fu Hong Kong films from the late 80s and early 90s.
3 of 5 stars.
