‘The Great Wall’ Matt Damon vs Savage Chinese Monsters

Matt Damon takes viewers inside making The Great Wall. It’s a real wall, made of real stone and brick – the production built a 500-foot recreation of a section of the Great Wall of China – the actors are standing on.

So, I’m walking through my local multiplex previous year and, imagine my surprise, when I come across a poster for THE GREAT WALL, Matt Damon’s giant white face taking up about 80 percent of the surface area and dwarfing China (and I’m assuming Chinese people, not that I could see them they were so small) at the bottom corner. We first see them as a bunch of little dots scampering across the countryside – a very disappointing introduction. The two mercenaries have come seeking the fortune of a mythic black powder with the power of fire – instead, they are attacked by a odd beast as the near the Great Wall. They’re the Halley’s Comet of demons.

If you are one of the avid fans of Matt Damon, you will be shocked as he dressed in ambiguously medieval fantasy warrior, slinging arrows at ravening green beasties with a set of eyeballs in their shoulder bones, then The Great Wall is the movie enough for you. It, after all, originated as a thinly sketched conceit of Thomas Tull, the former chief executive of the now Chinese-owned Legendary Entertainment.

Damon’s sporadically accented mercenary character won’t go down as one his best performances but he gets the hero job done with some awesome technical distractions. William and his trusty comic sidekick Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are on the hunt when they’re attacked by a weird green creature.

The directorial work of House of Flying Daggers’ Yimou Zhang, The Great Wall is a visually spectacular and thrilling action movie experience – which doesn’t save it from often being incredibly silly and hokey, as well.

That’s where the spectacle comes in, with director Yimou Zhang doing a stunning presenting the unique soldiers and armaments the Chinese have gathered anticipating the every-60-year return of the creatures.

There are plot holes the size of the Great Wall in this film.

There’s nothing really scary in “The Great Wall”. One thing leads to another and it’s William who saves the day, thanks to a large magnetic rock that puts the monsters to sleep.

Few characters emerge out of the blur. The Nameless Order is divided into color-coded warriors in jewel-toned armor – archers in blazing red and acrobatic women in sapphire blue, bungee jumping from the wall with spears in hand. Garin watches her in awe, and quite rightly realizes he’s out of his depth.

It’s fun, but it’s not enough to save “The Great Wall” from the weight of its exhausted conventions.

The Great Wall has been rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of fantasy action violence.

Running Time: 1 hr.