The Great Wall

Monsters and walls and action, oh my! But for real, that’s basically the movie in a nutshell.

The Great Wall takes us to – you guessed it – the Great Wall of China, where an elite group of Chinese soldiers called the Nameless Order (that’s still a name, no?) protect and defend the secret of the wall, a secret which, if ever found out, could threaten the world as we know it. Enter William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal), two mercenaries traveling across China in search of a highly explosive substance called black powder that they intend to sell to the highest bidder, but after an unknown creature attacks their group, William and Tovar are brought to the Great Wall where they learn why this giant man-made structure exists in the first place: a race of monsters called the Tao Tei are approaching, and it’s highly unlikely that they’ll be repelled this time around, leaving the closest Chinese city exposed to wonton destruction and death. As the threat of the Tao Tei grows more and more dire, it’s up to the Nameless Order as well as our protagonists to stop their spread before it’s too late to do anything except watch the world go down in flames.

For a film that has been attacked for its “whitewashing” casting choices, I can say with all honesty that having Matt Damon in the starring role as a white guy saving what is essentially the entirety of China – and by extension the world – really isn’t the main problem everyone should be focusing on. While I agree that his inclusion in this film was head scratch worthy, the fact of the matter is that The Great Wall wouldn’t have been affected in any way from a storytelling standpoint if a Chinese actor were cast in the role. The characters are written so thinly and Damon’s acting was so middling that outside of having a big name attached to this film to sell more tickets, the reasoning behind casting him is confusing at best. Pedro Pascal, from Narcos and Game of Thrones fame, fairs slightly better in his role if only due to the fact that he has a couple more jokes and fun reactions to what’s going on around him. Pascal comes across as just some guy trying to get out of a weird situation while Damon does the complete opposite by taking it upon himself to try and be the deciding factor against the incoming monster invasion.

The rest of the all-Chinese cast (outside of Willem Dafoe who doesn’t really do much) fairs a whole lot better only because this is essentially a Chinese movie with a bunch of Hollywood actors in starring roles. I rather enjoyed seeing the few scenes where the filmmakers showed off the Chinese culture and put more of a focus on their plight against the monsters as opposed to just what Damon and Pascal see, and when any of the Chinese actors or actresses graced the screen, the scene immediately got more interesting to watch. Either way Hollywood needs to diversify their casting choices, and if a more competent film can be made likening itself to the semi-blockbuster this film tries to be, then we’ll be on the right track moving forward.

Outside of a few fun interactions between characters, there’s nothing here that’ll really have you yearning for anything other than the action sequences, and judging by the fact that this film is unusually short for a popcorn flick, it seems like the filmmakers knew what their bread and butter was while shooting. While the CG effects do a so-so job of conveying these creatures, it’s their weird designs and smarts that make them stand out more than the typical cookie cutter monster, but the end result is still lacking regardless. With an approach to the battles that mimics a sort of Lord of the Rings-ish feel (albeit super watered down) there’s enough of a cool factor inherent in most of these scenes that’ll leave you excited to see what else could happen next.

While not all that good of a film in the grand scheme of things, there’s enough in The Great Wall to keep you occupied and entertained during its relatively short runtime. Even with Mat Damon unnecessarily casted in a role that doesn’t really do much of anything, The Great Wall is a fun enough watch that its thinly scripted story and characters don’t ruin the entire experience, but with nearly nothing to offer outside of its interesting yet severely under executed concept, this film is best watched then forgotten soon after.