Not so great after all

When I first saw the poster for The Great Wall, it didn’t seem like a movie that I would normally rush to watch but, against my better judgement, I decided to give it a go anyway.

I thought to myself that any movie with Matt Damon in it ‘can’t be that bad’. After watching the movie however, I would like to apologise wholeheartedly to myself for making that very biased Hollywood-heartthrob assumption.

It was dreadful. The Great Wall starts off with William Garin (Matt Damon) and a few survivors from a European mercenary group seeking out ‘black powder’. During their search, most of them are targeted by bandits and the chase for catch them continues until they get cornered in front of The Great Wall of China.

They soon learn that the Chinese have a very colourful army and that The Great Wall was there for a reason - it was built to keep something out. Director Zhang Yimou gives this offering the look and feel of a Hollywood blockbuster although his signature visual dazzle seems to be slightly lacking.

While the warfare, action-sequences and inventive weaponry give the movie a unique twist, the fight-scene cinematography was less impressive, in my opinion. An ability to depict delicate relationships also appears to be absent, while the script attempts to delve into William’s fear of trying anything foreign fails to develop.

As a result, The Great Wall comes across as insensitive. Yimou was expected to add the emotional, cultural and creative flair that exists in his celebrated Chinese movies to this Hollywood production however despite his prestige value, it misses out on opportunities to create suspense.

The big secret and purpose behind creating The Great Wall was revealed too early on in the movie and, because of this, the rest of the action becomes a series of predictable events. The most notable thing about The Great Wall is that it doesn’t attempt to be historically-correct at all and this works well in some instances.

For example, the head of the Chinese army is a woman, Commander Lin. Surprising, considering the Chinese had little to no regard for women in positions of power at the time. While The Great Wall most definitely won’t go down as Zhang’s greatest, a touch of his artistic vision for the film with long panoramic sweeps and artistic strokes of colour, make the movie bearable at times.

However, for a movie boasting a budget of $150m, film-goers certainly could have expected a lot more. The Great Wall might be great in real life but it’s definitely not such a memorable treat on the big screen.

Now showing: Cineco, Seef I, Wadi Al Sail, Saar, Dana, Novo, Mukta A2