A Taotei-like gluttonous creature with no restraint, the film is a Sino-Hollywood co-production run amok. While it is spectacularly made with the director’s trademark of scale, order, color, light, and rhythm, it is nevertheless a monster film with no soul, a zombie story with no emotion, and a threadbare narrative with little plot. The Great Wall is simply a dazzlingly bad film, co-production or not. The repressed sexuality in the later scenes between Jing Tian and Matt Damon oddly reminded me of dubbed North Korean films I watched in China thirty years ago, with meaningful looks among committed comrades substituting for genuine human feelings. In the single-minded purpose to defend the state, everything else is subordinated.
In addition, beyond the joint efforts to defeat the CGI-generated enemy, none of the Chinese characters in The Great Wall show much personality or individualism, certainly no romance or, dare I say, any sexuality. This is of course not possible in a film about China. The protagonists of Hollywood blockbusters are often cynical rebels, dismissive of established governmental authority, for example Tony Stark in the Iron Man films, the various other heroes in the Avengers series, or Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise. Within China, no one questioned Damon’s role, which was never intended for an Asian or Asian-American actor indeed, director Zhang was mystified by such a critique.īut there are other, more fundamental reasons why the film might not resonate with a Western-or even a Chinese-audience familiar with Hollywood blockbusters. Second, and one indication of the challenges of meeting audience demand in both markets, was the furor surrounding the casting of Matt Damon in, what some lamented, was the typical “white savior” role. Of the 161 reviews on Rotten Tomatoes, only 35 percent were positive, and even those that gave it a fresh rating admitted it wasn’t “good,” but it was a “deliriously silly mess,” “enjoyable nonsense,” an absurd “hoot-and-a-half,” and what Roger Corman might have done “if he made a mega-budgeted, multinational film.” Accompanying the high expectations, ironically, was a wariness, even cynicism, with many critics perhaps expecting a film written by a committee that would have great visuals and special effects, but would attempt to be as culturally inoffensive as possible in order to appeal to multiple markets. First, judging from the reviews, part of the problem can be traced to the hype surrounding the film’s buildup and the unrealistic expectations of those familiar with the previous efforts of director Zhang and star Damon. This failure can be traced to a number of factors, which, I would argue, will make it difficult for future Chinese films or Sino-American co-productions to succeed in both markets.
However, by most standard indicators, the film has failed to meet expectations, grossing under $18.5 million on its opening weekend, despite being shown on 3,326 screens, far more than any previous Chinese film. As has been endlessly reported, this was intended to be more than just a movie, it was an “event,” the first serious attempt to link the two largest film markets in a co-production that had a production budget north of $150 million, starred Matt Damon, and was 80 percent in English. The wait is over, Zhang Yimou’s The Great Wall opened in the North American market in February 2017, following its opening in China last December.
The great wall movie rating how to#
Hollywood and China’s commissars have always made for strange bedfellows, but have they finally figured out how to beget viable offspring? Will other major stars follow Damon’s example and act in films that promote Beijing’s message? Will American audiences watch them? Will Chinese? Can propaganda ever make for a real blockbuster? Or will the powers on both sides someday relent and let a director like Zhang make the kind of nuanced human dramas that made his name in the first place? -The Editors The movie may be backed by a Hollywood studio and it may star no less an American icon than Matt Damon, and yet it proffers China as the source of military might and moral right. monsters tale, director Zhang Yimou has brought America the most expensive Chinese film ever created. Director Zhang Yimou (L), and actors Pedro Pascal, Jing Tian, and Matt Damon at the premiere of ‘The Great Wall’ at the TCL Chinese Theatre IMAX on Februin Hollywood, California.
0 kommentar(er)
