Michael Scott
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The Great Wall
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Audio:
Extras:
Final Score:
Movie:

Video:

Audio:

Extras:

Final Score:

The Great Wall was the subject of much discussion for the last year, and mostly for some pretty eye roll worthy reasons. It was announced that famed Hong Kong director Yimou Zhang, who was known for such films as House of Flying Daggers, Raise the Red Lantern, Curse of the Golden Flower and Hero, was going to be making a giant fantasy epic and fans went wild. Then it was announced that he was casting Matt Damon as one of the lead characters (because he and the casting director were found out to be huge fans) and the internet EXPLODED with people screaming about “white washing” and “white Hollywood” trying to ruin Asian cinema. Celebrities like Constance Wu spoke up and made public comments about the evils of white washing etc, but when push came to shove and the movie actually came out, it was exactly as the most level headed of us expected. A big, dumb, Honk Kong fantasy action film that just happened to have Matt Damon as one of the stars. Nothing more, nothing less.
We all thought that the great wall of China was meant to keep out the Mongolian hordes. Well, just like Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter we appeared to have been lied to. What it REALLY was built for was to keep out legions of dragon like beasts that arise every 60 years and devour anything in their way. A few hundred years ago was the last uprising, occurring as a handful of Western European soldiers lead by William (Matt Damon) trek across the Chinese border looking for black powder to fuel the European war machine. When the group are ambushed by these green monsters (later revealed as the Tao Tei) all that is left is William and his friend Tovar (Pedro Pascal). It seems that these men have stumbled right into the middle of the 60-year uprising and barely are able to make it to the great wall, where they are captured by Chinese forces who are hunkering down for the battle of a lifetime.
It doesn’t take much to figure out what happens next. William and Tovar prove their worth the lovely General Lin Mae (Tian Jing), and the duo team up against the beasties in order to save all of humankind, yadda yadda yadda. Well, things aren’t all hunky dory in our click, as Tovar wants to steal the black powder weapons and escape during the battle with a captured European (Willem Dafoe), but William has grown a bit of a conscience and is planning to stay by Lin Mae’s side and fight to the bitter end. This is naturally thwarted when Tovar makes an escape plan, and the idiotic Chinese nobles capture a Tao Tei and lead it RIGHT into the capital city where it can call upon the hordes of other beasties to come in and wipe out the reigning populace.
It’s interesting to see Yimou Zhang and the entire epic cast of great Hong Kong actors blend in with Hollywood budgets and co-production. You can definitely see the blending of the two styles with every step of the way. Much of the pacing and dialog is VERY Hong Kong like, while at other times you can see the American Hollywood influences amongst the plot. Damon and Tavor REEEK of your typical American heroes, but there is such a weird blending of the two styles that sometimes it’s hard to see where one begins and the other stops. Andy Lau is sadly VERY underutilized as chief strategist Wang, but the lovely Tian Jing gets front and center with a semi-romantic roll between herself and Matt Damon. I was really wondering if Matt was going to be the lead and just usher everyone to victory, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that while he was a main character, he didn’t dominate the on-screen time and pull the whole “hero who saves the day”. His bow is influential, but he and Tian Jing both are given a fairly harmonious working relationship at the end of the day.
Rating:
Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy action violence
Video:

Audio:

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Extras:

• Matt Damon in China
• The Great Wall Visual Effects
• Working with Director Zhang Yimou
• Man vs. Monster
• Designing a Spectacular World
• Weapons of War
Final Score:

The Great Wall is a stupidly fun movie, and by that, I mean it’s stupid….and it’s fun. The movie is your basically a Hong Kong monster movie with the budget and marketing prowess of Hollywood. Something which I GREATLY approve of as I’m a HUGE lover of Hong Kong cinema and would love for them to get more coverage. There’s nothing wildly special about The Great Wall, but it serves as a lavishly set film that excels in flair and style with lots of butt kicking to keep a happy grin on my face. The audio and video specs for the disc are more than well done, and border on perfection, and there’s even some decent extras that talk about the intricacies of combining eastern and western filming practices. Definitely recommended as a fun, mindless, popcorn movie.
Technical Specifications:
Starring: Matt Damon, Willem Dafoe, Tian Jing
Directed by: Yimou Zhang
Written by: Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: Dolby Atmos (Dolby TrueHD 7.1 Core), Spanish, French DD 5.1
Studio: Universal
Rated: PG-13
Runtime: 103 Minutes
Blu-ray Release Date: May 23rd, 2017
Recommendation: Cheesy Dumb Watch