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 - Ramin Djawadi

Music Supervisors - Peter Afterman and

Margaret Yen

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 characters 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. Instead, he is 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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