This film was a watershed moment for me, being the first major Chinese blockbuster and to be honest they made a better blockbuster than the majority of what Hollywood has produced.
The film itself is rather decent nothing mind-blowing or great but a solid action fantasy but where this film succeeds and most others have failed is both in the script and the look of the film. Lets start with the script, again nothing great but what it set out to do it did well without having to make silly jokes or reference other films it was a film contained within its own universe. It has pacing problems in the beginning but when we are at the wall that's when the film finds its groove and keeps on going.
The story is about Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal who play "traders" in the east looking for black powder (gunpowder) they end up at the great wall of china and have to help the Chinese fight off a horde of monsters. That's it, it has a straightforward plot and sticks with it, no curve-balls just simplicity. Matt Damon is fine in the film not his best work but certainly not his worst and Pedro Pascal is good and convincing. The other actors are all fine in the film, no standout performances and overall it feels like a mid 2000's blockbuster in the same vein as Van Helsing or The Mummy.
Cinematography is what sets this film apart, there are problems but there is so much colour in this film and it is a welcome return to movies. Scale is also a part of this film, its not always present and sometimes the film feels claustrophobic but some of the wall scenes are huge. The CGI scenes in this were nothing special but they were not eye-gouging.The music was also very standard eastern fantasy affair but serviceable to the film.
Overall i think this a good steeping stone for the Chinese film industry to go mainstream and i encourage anyone to go see this film in the cinema, its not great but it is better than a lot i have seen in the past year or so. Definitely worth a watch.
7/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
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