It's a bit disappointing to see how Director Zhang Yimou; who has made some artistically beautiful visionary films, has somehow found himself making this relatively generic Hollywood monster movie. It comes complete with the archetypal characters, familiar plot tropes and cliches, straight forward story, plus a dash of that "white savior complex." It's almost like all the ambitiousness put on this movie was focused on the visuals more, and unfortunately that department didn't exactly produce masterful work either.
From the characters, to the premise, to the visuals, most everything here is generally bland. I say most everything, because there are things that I did in fact like. The sense of scale shown in this movie is incredible to watch. The extremely large army of the great wall, with each factions distinguishable by the striking color coded armors, is quite the sight to watch in action. The design of the monsters they are fighting, and how they are portrayed, is actually really good as well. Plus there are set pieces that were genuinely enjoyable to watch play out, like the first wall defense action sequence, or the "whale catching" plot point.
I suppose the best compliment I can truly give this movie is that it honestly wasn't horrible. It's unfortunate that "The Great Wall" has several lackluster qualities to it, but the genuinely entertaining aspects might just be enough to justify it from not being a complete waste of time to watch.
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