The Great Wall is a film where Matt Damon plays a mercenary named William who is searching for black powder until he is stopped at The Great Wall of China and taken as prisoner. He then fights the monsters that threaten China and the rest of the world. Sounds like the biggest blockbuster flick of the year and sounds kind of awful but The Great Wall has something different about it that other blockbusters don’t have, it knows how to have fun and not take itself too seriously.
The level of enjoyment is important to how much I liked this film. Never did I think that the film was really stupid or ridiculous, unlike when I watched Pacific Rim for the first time and thought about the hundreds of other things I could’ve done with those two hours. The Great Wall and Pacific Rim share a similarity in that it is Hollywood trying to connect to and show different cultures and unlike the over the top, unnecessary, story and character developments in Pacific Rim, The Great Wall uses them to show a bit of much-needed humanity and calmness to level out the level of absurdity. The Great Wall looks amazing, it has fantastic work from the dream team of Weta and ILM, and it feels the same. It feels like a mixture of Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean, in terms of production and overall vibe. This is largely thanks to the unfamiliarity of the setting and things like the weapons being used. There is a huge variety and no two fighting scenes are ever the same. On top of all this the score, by Ramin Djawadi who does the Game of Thrones score, is exquisite for a blockbuster score. The score hits the perfect beat in every scene and the fighting music is not just complete drums but a mixture of Chinese culture, the Game of Thrones score and your typical blockbuster score. The next best part is the costumes which I can only describe as being as colourful as Power Rangers, there is even a track title in the score called ‘Powder Rangers’ because of the black powder in the film. Each General and each garrison of troops have a different colour of armour. This creates a beautiful display of shining armour amongst the dark and fiery colours used in the battles. The film is also quite funny as Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal’s characters share some very good banter. All of these elements mixed together create not just an entertaining blockbuster but something that you will want to actually watch. If this were a regular blockbuster film then you could look at your phone every now and again, while watching it on DVD, and not care about the actual look of the film. The production of the film is so well put together that you can’t do that and don’t want to take your eyes off it.
Now the production is important but any film can have really good production but still be awful, looking at you most of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The Great Wall lingers on the cusp of being too cheesy at times and the story isn’t fantastic. The film is actually comedic, as in they make jokes and the jokes are meant to make you laugh, there are, however, other times when you will laugh because it has the same thing that the Taken franchise has where you think that parts are stupid and laughable. Yes that is a flaw and there are a few other weird choices, like some really awkward up close back and forths, and those are bad. It doesn’t help the film because it doesn’t mean to be like that but to achieve everything else it most likely had to be a little cheesy. From a more critic perspective, the film isn’t exactly the best blockbuster ever made and it isn’t the best story ever but it is refreshing. It’s refreshing to see something different and on a different scale to other blockbuster films. It doesn’t need to be entertainingly bonkers or have the best story because what it does best is give you an enjoyable and entertaining time with a level of production that will mesmerise you. It is great.
VERDICT
Critic Score: 3/5
Entertainment and Enjoyability Score: 4.5/5
I’ve broken the scores up because I think it is unfair to judge it on both because it is the type of film that you could judge from both angles. Not every film is going to be the best story and win every Oscar. The Great Wall is a film that understands it’s audience and gives them a film that is an enjoying two hours instead of trying to prove something more than it has to. I greatly enjoyed it and I think you will too, if the film is your sort of thing. The production is amazing and this is easily my favourite blockbuster of the year so far.