Quite the opposite of great, actually.
Matt Damon is one of the most popular American movie stars of his generation. Similarly, Zhang Yimou is a filmmaker of supreme technical and emotional skill, which he’s been showing off consistently ever since his debut in the late 1980s. So on the surface, a team-up between Damon and Yimou, in what is set to be the filmmaker’s first English language feature, should be cause for excitement. But strangely enough, the anticipation surrounding The Great Wall - an ambitious Hollywood and Chinese co-production hitting theaters stateside this weekend - has been surprisingly low these past few weeks.
Unfortunately, The Great Wall doesn’t do anything worth getting all that excited over either, which, despite featuring some entertaining and technically impressive battle sequences, is a shockingly boring outing from both Damon and Yimou.
Set during an unidentified time in the distant past, The Great Wall follows two European mercenaries, William (Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal), as they journey East to try and find the legendary black powder, which is said to turn air itself into fire. Intending to capture some of the powder and return it to their bosses in the West, Tovar and William’s plans are completely upended when they are captured and taken in by The Nameless Order, an army of specially trained forces stationed within the Great Wall of China. They are there to protect the Chinese people from the vicious Tao Tei, a species of man-eating creatures born from the remains of a crashed meteor, who attack the Wall every sixty years in the hope of devouring every man, woman, and child living in China.
William and Tovar are already familiar with the Tao Tei when they are captured by The Nameless Order, after killing one of the Tao Tei scouts just one night before their arrival at the Wall. The Nameless are so astonished at William and Tovar’s success in killing one of the Tao Tei without any extra help, in fact, that they quickly welcome them as guests of honor at the Wall. There they work with The Nameless to try and keep the Tao Tei at bay, while Tovar plots to try and steal the Black Powder when they are not looking, and William develops a close relationship with Commander Lin Mae (Tian Jing).
Willem Dafoe also pops up throughout the film as Ballard, a fellow European mercenary who journeyed to China to try and steal some Black Powder as well, but has been kept as a prisoner there for twenty-five years. While an actor of Dafoe’s caliber might make it seem initially like Ballard will prove to be an interesting, integral character to the story, however, he ends up being nothing more than a thinly-sketched vessel for a subplot so pointless you’ll likely forget it was even a part of the film after you see it.
The same goes for a majority of the film’s other cast members. Damon seems to be trying for some kind of Irish, tough accent in the film, but struggles to keep a consistency there with little to no success. Now, to both The Great Wall and Damon’s credit, William does not wind up being another cliched white savior like many had feared, and is instead surprisingly dismissed and taught respect quite often by The Nameless Order. But that doesn’t stop him from feeling like another stock, stereotypical bad-guy-with-a-heart-of-gold.
William’s relationship with Commander Lin Mae is arguably the weakest aspect of the film, despite both of the actors’ commendable efforts. Their chemistry is just non-existent, and the writing between them feels so recycled that there’s really nothing they can do about it. Lin and William’s scenes don’t heat up the film or even bring a romantic spark to it, but rather chill it to the bone whenever they’re onscreen together.
The only cast member who fares better than the rest is Pedro Pascal. His Tovar is charming, sinister, and humorous - often all at once. While some of his jokes may not land as well as the film may hope, Pascal delivers every line with such commitment and snark that you’re able to forgive even the cheesiest of his one-liners. His bond with William is the only tangible emotional element in The Great Wall, which makes it irritating when the film decides to spend so much more time focusing on William and Lin Mae’s wooden relationship.
If there is a reason to see The Great Wall then it’s because of how well Yimou directs and stages his fight sequences throughout. The opening battle between the Tao Tei and The Nameless Order on The Wall can’t help but feel like a lesser version of the Battle of Helm’s Deep, but Yimou manages to bring a pulse-pounding intensity to the sequence nonetheless. Each faction of The Nameless Order has a specific function and skill set, and Yimou sets each of them up like dominoes, before allowing them all to fall in sometimes spectacular fashion.
That opening sequence and a fight on the ground between William, Tovar, and a whole horde of the Tao Tei are when The Great Wall succeeds the most. Which just makes it that much more disappointing when all the exciting staging and stylistic choices Yimou put to good use previously, are thrown out for a final confrontation that’s so anti-climactic and poorly-paced that the undeniably terrible CGI effects and creatures littered throughout it wind up being the least of its problems.
The Verdict
It’s not terrible, but The Great Wall doesn’t even come close to being the action movie epic it so clearly wants to be -- no matter how charming and fun Pedro Pascal is.
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