Monday, August 14, 2017

The Great Wall Review












The Great Wall


Release Date: 16th February 2017 - Australia


Production Companies
Universal Pictures
Legendary East
Atlas Entertainment
China Film Group Co., Ltd. (in association with)
Kava Productions
Le Vision Pictures (in association with)
Legendary Entertainment
Fuji Television Network
Dentsu

Distribution
Universal Pictures Australia


Genre: Fantasy/Action

Rating: M

Runtime: 103 minutes


Budget: $150,000,000

Box Office Gross: $334,933,831 (Worldwide)


Plot Summary
A mercenary warrior gets imprisoned within the Great Wall. He discovers the secret behind one of the greatest wonders of the world. As the massive structure began to be besieged by wave after wave of marauding beasts, his quest for fortune became a journey of heroism when he joined an enormous army of elite warriors to confront the unimaginable and seemingly indestructible force.


Cast
Matt Damon - William
Tian Jing - Commander Lin Mae
Willem Dafoe - Ballard
Andy Lau - Strategist Wang
Pedro Pascal - Tovar
Hanyu Zhang - General Shao
Lu Han - Peng Yong
Kenny Lin - Commander Chen
Eddie Peng - Commander Wu
Xuan Huang - Commander Teng
Ryan Zheng - Shen
Karry Wang - Emperor
Pilou Asbæk - Bouchard
Numan Acar - Najid
Johnny Cicco - Rizzetti
Vicky Yu - Lt. Xiao Yu
Bing Lu - Lin Mae's 2nd Lt. Li Qing

Crew
Director - Yimou Zhang
Story - Max Brooks, Edward Zwick and Marshall Herskovitz
Screenplay - Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro and Tony Gilroy
Executive Producers - Alex Gartner, La Peikang, Jillian Share, E. Bennett Walsh and Zhao Zhang
Producers - Jon Jashni, Peter Loehr, Charles Roven and Thomas Tull
Co-Producers - Yong Er, Wang Zhang and Alex Hedlund
Co-Producer/Production Manager: Second Unit - Eric Hedayat
Casting Director - John Papsidera
Production Designer - John Myhre
On-Set Supervisor: Weta Workshop - Joe Dunkley
Design & Manufacturing Supervisor:
Weta Workshop - Richard Taylor
Workshop Supervisor: Weta Workshop -
Rob Gillies
Senior Supervising Art Director - Helen Jarvis
Supervising Art Directors - Huang Xinming
and Colin Gibson
Set Decorators - Gordon Sim and Yanbin Sun
Property Master - Simone Leclerc
Costume Designer - Mayes C. Rubeo
Makeup & Hair Designer - Paul Engelen
Directors of Photography - Stuart Dryburgh
and Xiaoding Zhao
Supervising Location Manager - William Doyle
Unit Production Manager - Kwame Parker
First Assistant Director - P.J. Voeten
Second Assistant Director - Scott Lovelock
Action Unit Director - George Marshall Ruge
Supervising Stunt Coordinator - Buster Reeves
Stunt Coordinator - Hua Yan
Stunt Co-Coordinator - Hiro Koda
Fight Coordinator - Vincent Wang
Special Effects Coordinator - Mark Koivu
Special Effects Consultant - Allen Hall
Visual Effects Supervisor - Phil Brennan
Visual Effects Supervisors: ILM - Samir Hoon
and Ben Snow
Associate Visual Effects Supervisor: ILM - Jeff Capogreco
Visual Effects Executive Producer: ILM - Jill Brooks
Animation Supervisor: ILM - Jance Rubinchik
Additional Supervisors: ILM - Jay Cooper,
Hayden Landis, David Nakabayashi and
David Weitzberg
Editors - Mary Jo Markey and Craig Wood
Supervising Sound Editor - Gwendolyn Yates Whittle
Sound Designer - Kyrsten Mate
Additional Sound Design - Gary Rydstrom
Re-Recording Mixers - Michael Semanick
and Beau Borders
Foley Artists - Jana Vance, Dennie Thorpe
and Geoff Vaughan
Music Supervisors - Peter Afterman and
Margaret Yen
Music - Ramin Djawadi


Review
An ambitious US/Asian co-production came crashing down due to its unpopularity and lost income at the box office. At first, THE GREAT WALL seemed to be a pleasant historical fantasy film with great action scenes and a bonafide star like Matt Damon. Unfortunately, the Chinese were too offended by its white-saviour plot in a setting for a famous landmark in China. While not the worst but certainly not the best movie ever made, THE GREAT WALL lacked the distinctive flair of an epic film. Some historical aspects were in THE GREAT WALL. The remainder was fantasy-based as its storyline was entirely fictional, and none were true to the Chinese legends. Many characterisations are flat and one-dimensional, caused by the writing and direction.

I don't blame Matt Damon for being in this big-budgeted misfire if it weren't for the filmmakers' decision to hire him in the first place. He is instead the centre of attention and nearly ends up getting his career killed by the movie. Willem Dafoe also takes a risk in being cast as a European stuck in the Great Wall for a long time.

Here is another big-screen disappointment you would have least expected. It'd be one of those recent movies that belong to obscurity. THE GREAT WALL is powerless against a silly plot and wooden characters. I consider this a mediocre film. It's not something I want to watch again.

Star rating: (4/10) Below Average

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