The Great Wall (2017)

That was an excellent one.

Simply Perfect

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Ascinating! Unlike anything I've seen before, and thoroughly entertaining at that. Spectacular visuals. Obviously heavy on CGI, but boy, is it entertaining and a visual feast! One thing, though, the film would have been better without Willem Dafoe's character, who is passive and only there when he is really needed, otherwise does not really serve a purpose. The lack of consideration for the killing off of Matt Damon's friends in the film is also a bit worrying, as if they're soul-less creatures.If you're not into monsters, though, you might want to give this one a skip.

The story at first seemed cheesy, but with the convincing characters and a decent plot. It was actually an enjoyable movie to watch!!

Other user reviewers either loved or hated this movie, with many in between. Count me in the latter. Rather than a real review, I'm just going to share some thoughts about it. 'Hero' was one of my favorite movies ever; I loved the Chinese and Ukrainian forest scenes in 'House of Flying Daggers;' 'Curse of the Golden Flower' was fairly entertaining, though it was hard to square the fluorescent illuminated hot pink and neon-colored plastic columns with a palace in 928 A.D. So, liking the director's other movies and the actors, I wanted to enjoy it .... but then came the flood of CGI monsters. (Maybe it's a girl thing?) but -just like in LOTR, the Twin Towers, my eyes glazed over a minute into the sight of 200,000 identically rendered grey, ugly monster animal thingies swarming the set. I cease to care. Wake me when 90% of them are dead, and there's a good sword fight, or some dialog. That occurred about the time Matt Damon chose to free Oberon instead of grabbing the black powder, but not before some of those ghastly-colored plastic interiors from COTGF made an appearance. It might be one of those movies that grows on a person over time, during the rounds of late-night cableTV. That's the recommendation- wait until you can watch it for free, so you won't resent it taking two hours from your life.

A CGI-fuelled action epic that has a by-the-numbers plot and no characterisation. You know what? I actually enjoyed this. I just wanted to be entertained whilst stuffing my face with homemade popcorn (which were delicious by the way...), and it did that. A collaboration between film heavyweights Hollywood and China where the results determine the future of marketing films, domestic against worldwide. The results were fine, but I can't see it happening again. The Great Wall of China was built to protect its lands, not just from human invaders, but from mythical beasts known as the Tao Tieh. Two European mercenaries are captured and prove their skills in the aid of defending China. This is a Zhang Yimou blockbuster, if you've seen his previous films then you'll know he is big on style. Gloriously vibrant colours to create memorable scenes, he does the exact same here. The green of the Tao Tieh against the red fires and grey architecture, he turns films into spectacles. The costume design was magnificent and easily the highlight of the technical aspects. Each unique group, where they have specialised skills, of The Nameless Order wear differing coloured armour to differentiate themselves. The commanding offices wore unique breastplate symbols and helmets which really enhanced the ancient Chinese setting that Yimou created. It reminded me of the video game 'Dynasty Warriors' so I can see there is continuity and consistency in the attire of Chinese military orders. The story is as formulaic as one might expect. Defend the wall from waves of enemies until they take out the Queen. It's uninspired unfortunately. Matt Damon's accent was all over the place and the "feelings" between his character and Commander Lin felt forced for the sake of emotional investment...to which there was none. The excessive dependence on visual effects meant that occasionally the CGI looked slightly rushed, particularly the human CGI. Although on the whole, it's a functional entertaining blockbuster.