 |
| "The cosplay finals were in full swing..." |
Matt Damon, and that fella
(Pedro Pascal) who fights The Mountain in Season 4 of Game of Thrones, team up
for this fantasy action movie set in ancient China with Tian Jing playing the
Commander of a group of elite soldiers defending The Great Wall (of China).
Featuring rather colourful and cool armour and some sweeping cinematography,
The Great Wall is a visceral pleasure, but gives everything away too soon so
any sense of suspense is deflated before it starts.
Based on myth (obviously
loosely) The Great Wall features armies, monsters and two almost superhuman
characters. Damon’s character begins like Leonardo DiCaprio in The Revenant and
finishes like an Ancient Chinese Jason Bourne whilst Pedro Pascal reminds me a
bit too much of Cassian Andor from Rogue One. My biggest fear was that this
would be a movie where the superior white man saves the other ethnicities from certain
doom, but although there is an element of this it was nowhere near as bad as I
feared it would be.
The movie itself is
enjoyable enough, but, as I said earlier, is hit with the issue that the film
gives too much away too soon. This means that once the big reveal has happened,
the movie trundles to a conclusion that you could probably guess before it
actually happens. Tian Jing is a stunning looking lady but backs it up with
combat prowess and a strong female character that defies stereotype. Willem
Dafoe also features and is woefully underused, but a welcome addition to the
cast. However, regardless of the pleasing visuals, the sweeping shots, some
great choreography and special effects, the film doesn’t quite reach the
echelons of greatness that the Wall suggests. It’s enjoyable and decent if you
are yearning for an action movie, but the only great part is in its title.
POPSCORE:
7/10
No comments:
Post a Comment