The historical fiction monster movie has William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) encounter The Nameless Order, an army that protects the world from creatures beyond the Wall. Every 60 years, the Tao Tie (frog-like many-toothed monsters) emerge to destroy everything and everyone. William, at first nothing but a selfish robber, transforms to join and help the order defeat them.
I’ll be the first to admit that The Great Wall is a visual spectacle in most ways. The Nameless Order has colour-coded factions dedicated to certain levels. In the fight sequences, the hues alone make for a callback to Yimou’s rich Wuxia films, something the director is famous for. But these combats lack the flight and frenzy of his previous works like House of Flying Daggers .
And when battle isn’t dominating the screen, The Great Wall falters in more than one way. Yes, the film does subvert the ‘white saviour’ formula. This army is a sophisticated, organised killing machine working at peak levels. So in this case, William is schooled on how to be a better human being. But that’s pretty cheesy too. Tovar provides most of the film’s humour, which at most times isn’t funny. There’s a strange cameo by Willem Dafoe as a greedy prisoner of the order who wants to escape the Wall. With little to no back stories, almost all characters, including Tovar, end up being mere props. Let’s not forget the tepid chemistry between William and Commander Lin (an expressionless Jing Tian). Almost every one of their encounters has cringe-worthy dialogue. Case in point, William’s “That’s why I’m alive because I trust no one” when Lin tries to teach him about the order functioning on mutual trust between everyone. Even the tried-and-tested tropes of characters sacrificing themselves for the cause fall short. But the height of idiocy in the film is the effects that magnets have on Tao Tie.
In the end, The Great Wall takes itself too seriously, forgetting that its monsters are bad CGI-rendered frogs. Seeing humans fight with such fervour against abysmally unworthy adversaries is underwhelming if you’d like to be kind. It’s just plain brainless to put it midly.
