Great wall holds director back
Master filmmaker neutralized by monster movie’s gaming-derived style
Monstrous Chinese blockbuster The Great Wall shows its devotion to American cinema from the get-go, opening with a desert horseback pursuit straight out of a classic 1950s Western. And hey, one of those fleeing cowboys is Matt Damon.
But this is 12th-century China and Damon is no cowpoke, he’s mercenary soldier and master archer William Garin, whose wavering accent would indicate he has ridden in from Cleveland by way of Denmark.
The largest-budget movie ever shot in China — a market where Hollywood action films pull huge box-office numbers — and with a big American star on the marquee, The Great Wall marks the first English-language production from master filmmaker Zhang Yimou ( Raise the Red Lantern, Hero, House of Flying Daggers).
Unfortunately, the gorgeous subtlety of Zhang’s mesmerizing style is carried off with the first wave of man-eating, green-blooded monsters. This is a movie that owes much to gaming style, with furious action, in-your-face flying weapons and an uncomplicated story.
Earlier concerns about whitewashing, which erupted when Damon’s casting in a Chinese historical epic was announced, are put to rest. His character is written as “European” and often bested by the Chinese, who are more advanced about weaponry, tactics and ethics. Still, Damon’s job description is solidly Hollywood hero.
Along with sidekick Tovar (Pedro Pascal of Game of Thrones), Garin has been fighting for whomever pays the way and is now in China, hoping to get his hands on the near-mythic exploding “black powder” the Chinese have invented.
They’re captured by warriors of the massive Nameless Order battalion, who protect the Fortress City within the new-looking Great Wall. They have a keen interest in a paw Garin claims he took doing battle with a strange creature.
It belongs to one of a horde of telepathic hyena-lizard monsters, called Tao Tei, that rise up every 60 years for a bloody rampage to devour humans as punishment for our greed.
They swarm like zombies, scaling the Great Wall, launching into the camera with 3D-enhanced viciousness, temporarily stopped only by flying lances, barrages of arrows and the slick steam-punk weaponry crafted by the ingenious Nameless Order warriors. Garin and Tovar reluctantly pitch in to help.
Most interesting among the Nameless Order is Commander Lin Mae (Jing Tian of the upcoming Kong: Skull Island), who heads the allwomen Crane Corps of bungeejumping fighters who deliver deadly strikes with Cirque du Soleil-style acrobatics — and look great doing it.
Lin speaks English, having learned from Ballard (Willem Dafoe), another black-powder fan who’s been a captive of the Nameless Order for 25 years.
She’s also prepared to school Garin about finding a higher purpose for fighting and the value of trust — not the only things the Chinese have to teach the backward newcomers.
Only Garin, who’s been in China long enough to be able to eat with chopsticks but doesn’t know a word of the language, makes any progress in that regard.
Tovar is there for laughs and Ballard is only missing a moustache to twirl as the bad guy.
The Chinese cast speaks mostly Mandarin (with English subtitles) and Lin often acts as translator for Garin.
Is her character passionless or is Jing wooden? Are they supposed to have feelings for each other beyond an admiration of fighting styles? When will the monsters start rampaging again?
There are some entertaining visuals from Zhang, especially rising hotair balloons echoing mourning lanterns released in an earlier scene. And the portable wristband lighters for gunpowder fuses are fun.
More of that spirit of innovation would have taken The Great Wall beyond a middling monster flick with a bloated budget and a Hollywood star at the fore.