Review of The Great Wall (2016) by Pipec — 30 May 2017

A Great Wall Is Obstructed By Digital Spectacularity.

It's paradoxical to take a look at the cosmopolitan daily newspapers these days and contemplate that while the planet is setting up for a truthful confrontation between China and the U.S. for the sake of its interests in South China Sea's disputed waters, this two cinematographic titans' economic relations are cooking at the box-office of the spear constituted by Legendary East, China Film Group and other film production companies both oriental and occidental. So, setting out the scene from an absolute perspective, are the Americans and the Chinese exchanging peace for dough? And although are unlike matters, is the money and not understanding which stirs up that two of the most powerful nations in the world join in function to perpetuate the collapse of our capitalist universe?

Let's focus on the field that concerns us. It has officially commenced the struggle for preponderance in movie theaters around the negotiations between the States of the East and the West, thanks to movies from one side were a triumph in the other country and vice versa. We could see this coming for a long time; starting with the purchase of Lions Gate Entertainment, following American success of films as "The Mermaid" or Jackie Chan's and Jet Li's vain comedies or the partial recovery of capital investment from English-speaking feature films such as "Warcraft" or "XXX: Return of Xander Cage" which don't even managed to get off the ground in its mother country and concluding with the ineluctable kick start of co-productions, a trend that with respect to cinema, in the light of the issue, doesn't bode well at all.

"The Great Wall" is the key, a 150-million key which opens the door of victory, at least economic. Equality and inclusion have even touched this mega-production script since six screenwriters/writers are who engrave their names to the rough but eye-catching legend. It's evident how each writer instills the details of their previous works either in exegesis, creative, artistic or visual section. The story carries us to xeric European deserts, where two mercenary globetrotters, William (Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal), are caught by The Nameless Order after they murder a mystifying glaucous quadruped. That frightening creature, which stands for greed, is one of the thousands of "Taoties" that ravage the Chinese army every sixty years, looking for revenge due to their ancestors' avarice.

Doesn't it sound compelling? Sentinels wearing polychromatic attires — "Power Rangers" style — divided according to their warlike skills. They defeat their enemies using of pulleys, catapults, bullet time arrows, hot air balloons, sharp weapons, bravery and too much CGI. Director Yimou Zhang decides, in a terrible way, to give more prominence to strenuous exquisite pictures as he neglects and subordinates the story, which increasingly becomes into a buddy comedy film. Yeah, they're wonderful and it's not simple to conceive and execute-correctly-fight choreographies with such agreement and style levels with a macro-budget, however, with that risk in mind, they sign up a filmmaker who stands out for his visual landscapes full of courtliness and accordance, deplorably, they didn't expect that in his first and greatest opportunity to continue in highly expensive movies, he relegate a vital aspect: narrative development.

From the initial sequence, it reveals the lack of on-screen chemistry between the leading duo, forcefulness in push-lines is what is needed and the leitmotiv wanders due to weak acting tandem. William Defoe is a hollow and unjustified incorporation, a mere tool for attracting more spectators to cinemas. To a larger extent, they applied a similar strategy to Damon, who is an immediate commercial attractant; A pretty face saving hundreds of lives from a horde of demons, are they intelligent, aren't they? On the other hand, the Eastern actors, highlighting the inclusion of a fantastic warrior lady (Tian Jing), feel more comfortable, in interesting visuals that radiate artistic and traditionalist oriental sensibility.

"The Great Wall" is another horizontal graphic direct-entertainment blockbuster, however, marks the beginning for the agreements between the English-speaking country and the Chinese titan, while providing an unusual look of the Great Wall and female introduction in a feature film of such monetary magnitude. The film is inversely proportional to its pretensions and it's comforting to witness that it doesn't focus on its emboldened main character, but focuses its efforts on the battle army, their relationships, troubles, and ambitions. Nondescript characters, powerful characters, repetitive God's eye views, a crushing mise-en-scène; the motion picture is a raffle of pros and cons that set off on the wrong foot the negotiations, however, this lacking timing and thrilling epic adventure is pleasant, is the kind of movie a 13-year-old boy can't wait to see.