To paraphrase film critic Richard Roeper, The Great Wall is a relentlessly cheesy historical epic that makes 47 Ronin look like a documentary.
Matt Damon stars as William, a Westerner in China, and his partner (Pedro Pascal) searching for black powder, and they stumble upon the Great Wall of China and its military protecting it and its secrets from a deadly enemy that is, shall we say, otherworldly.
At first, they’re greeted with hostility and contempt, but once the enemy turns out to be gigantic creatures, they unwillingly become soldiers in defending the Great Wall. The only thing this provides is a series of fast-paced, silly battle sequences straight out of the Lord of the Rings movies.
Willem Dafoe costars in the film as a prisoner of the army and an ally to the Westerners. However, his character has very little context or motivation that we wonder why he took the role in the first place.
Matt Damon has done some great movies in his career, but this is not one of them. With an inconsistent accent and a pitiful attempt to channel his inner Last Samurai, Damon looks like he only took the role for an easy paycheck.
The special effects are occasionally good, but for the most part, they look incredibly cartoonish. That helps saddle an already campy story which has an uneven tone and one-dimensional characters.
Grade: C
(Rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy action violence.)
