There is nothing great about The Great Wall. In fact, I’d say there is little good here. Directed by celebrated Chinese filmmaker Zhang Yimou and starring Hollywood star Matt Damon, this Chinese-American alternate-history fantasy is surprisingly boring considering the talent behind it. The most positive thing about it, I suppose, is that at less than 120 minutes, The Great Wall is surprisingly short.

I certainly expected more from a big-budget Yimou film, especially considering how Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004) were exceptional-looking films that featured strong, heartfelt narratives. The Great Wall unfortunately (and again surprisingly) carries neither of these characteristics. In fact, it is a strangely soulless film, almost as if Yimou lost his direction under the immense weight of expectations. 

Admittedly, the opening act is moderately entertaining, though in a B-movie sort of way. The stage production, costume design and cinematography is fine but what relegates The Great Wall initially to direct-to-DVD release territory — at least initially — is the surprisingly mediocre CGI, which for a monster film is a glaring flaw.

Sealing the deal, as far as the film’s B-movie status is concerned, is the poorly written dialogue, dull characterisation, non-existent chemistry between the romantic leads and surprisingly bad acting. The biggest culprit here? Yes, it’s Matt Damon. The award-winning actor is not at his best and sports a strange European accent that shifts to his American variety with regularity.

The Great Wall is soulless — as if Zhang Yimou lost direction under the immense weight of expectations

I suppose the only saving grace is that The Great Wall doesn’t feature any whitewashing, which was a serious concern from the trailers. Matt Damon (William Garin) plays a mercenary who, alongside his buddy Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal), is captured alive by the Nameless Order after trying to steal a black powder. The duo is held prisoner when the Great Wall is attacked by a horde of green dragon-like monsters called the Taotie. After they help ward off the attack, they find themselves becoming a part of the resistance. As it turns out, the Great Wall was built to fight off these attacks which occur every 60 years and the Order solely exists to defend the Wall.

Despite the bad CGI, the imaginative world-building makes for some amusing viewing early on. But after the initial setup The Great Wall falls apart, and fast. For one, Damon’s interest in a female commander is very unconvincing. What’s more, the non-Chinese actors in the film feel as if they exist only to create interest for Western audiences. For instance, Willem Dafoe (Sir Ballard) plays a prisoner captured 25 years ago with little to add to the film.

There are some scenes that pander to Western audiences as well, which feel out of place with the rest of the very Chinese film. It is almost as if we’re watching a Transformers film shoehorn sequences designed to appeal to Asian audiences to tap into that market, except in reverse.

The Great Wall grows choppier as it progresses and the final segment almost comes across as amateurish. My gut feeling is that the film was meant to be significantly longer and was chopped brutally because it just didn’t work. This would, at least, explain the film’s curiously short runtime. Let’s hope that Yimou gets to work on another Chinese-American film, but more on his terms.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy action violence

Published in Dawn, ICON, March 12th, 2017