Movie Review: The Great Wall, directed by Yimou Zhang
Three Stars
“What are they trying to keep out?”
A fun, fast, heroic fantasy set in a China just across the border from historic. Tempted to give it four stars simply because my expectations were so low. Beautiful cinematography. The few western characters provide non-Chinese audiences a point-of-view from which to wonder and adapt. Worthy themes: trust and loyalty beat greed.
Most violence–the movie is wall-to-wall violence–is fantastic, usually between humans and computer-generated monsters. Female characters, led by Jing Tian’s Commander Lin, are serious, competent, fighters and leaders. Lots of fanciful medieval technology: sort of ancient China-punk.
A good way to burn through a bucket of popcorn.
As a Matter of Fancy 