Rent The Great Wall (2016)
3.0 of 5 from 565 ratings
1h 40min
- General info
- Available formats
- Synopsis:
- After travelling thousands of miles to China in search of a mystical weapon, mercenaries William Garin (Matt Damon) and Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) join forces with an elite army of soldiers making a valiant stand against a swarm of ancient creatures. Upon learning that the Great Wall of China serves as the last barrier keeping the world safe from the mysterious threat from the lands beyond, Garin and Tovar vow to join the battle and help Chinese Commander Lin Mei (Tian Jing) and her forces in their epic fight for survival.
- Actors:
- Matt Damon, Tian Jing, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau, Pedro Pascal, Hanyu Zhang, Han Lu, Kenny Lin, Eddie Peng, Xuan Huang, Ryan Zheng, Karry Wang, Cheney Chen, Pilou Asbæk, Numan Açar, Johnny Cicco, Vicky Yu, Bing Liu, Stephen Chang
- Directors:
- Yimou Zhang
- Producers:
- Jon Jashni, Peter Loehr, Charles Roven, Thomas Tull
- Writers:
- Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, Tony Gilroy, Max Brooks, Edward Zwick, Marshall Herskovitz
- Studio:
- Universal Pictures
- Genres:
- Action & Adventure, Sci-Fi & Fantasy, Thrillers
- Collections:
- 10 Films to Watch if You Like: Raise the Red Lantern, 2017, CinemaParadiso.co.uk Through Time, Films to Watch If You Like...
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 12/06/2017
- Run Time:
- 103 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description Dolby Digital 2.0, English Dolby Atmos, French Dolby Atmos, German Dolby Atmos, Italian Dolby Digital 5.1, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English Hard of Hearing, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.40:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Working with Director Yimou Zhang
- 'The Great Wall' Visual Effects
- Designing a Spectacular World
- And More!
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 12/06/2017
- Run Time:
- 103 minutes
- Languages:
- English Audio Description Dolby Digital 2.0, English Dolby Atmos, French Dolby Atmos, German Dolby Atmos, Italian, Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- Arabic, Danish, Dutch, English Hard of Hearing, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.40:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
- Bonus:
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Working with Director Yimou Zhang
- 'The Great Wall' Visual Effects
- Designing a Spectacular World
- And More!
- BBFC:
- Release Date:
- 12/06/2017
- Run Time:
- 103 minutes
- Languages:
- English Dolby Atmos, French Dolby Atmos, Latin American Spanish Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles:
- Danish, Dutch, English Hard of Hearing, Finnish, French, Latin American Spanish, Norwegian, Swedish
- DVD Regions:
- Region 2
- Formats:
- Pal
- Aspect Ratio:
- Widescreen 2.40:1
- Colour:
- Colour
- BLU-RAY Regions:
- B
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Reviews (11) of The Great Wall
What do you expect - The Great Wall review by AR
This is a film of style over substance. It's suppose to be nothing more than a breath taking spectacle and it delivers on all levels. I'm sorry for the people who expect every film to be shindlers list. Disconnect your brain engage your imagination and just judge it for what it is
4 out of 4 members found this review helpful.
Very silly and very enjoyable - The Great Wall review by MS
I thoroughly enjoyed this film in spite -- or because -- of its ineffable silliness. You just have to accept things like the acrobatic rope dancing female warriors -- embrace them! And their adorable blue uniforms. The acting was quite good, too -- I always find Matt Damon very engaging, but everyone was convincing, given that it's a total fantasy. Yes, the plot was very simple, but somehow it held my interest. And, as others have said, it looked magnificent.
1 out of 1 members found this review helpful.
Very Disappointing - all CGI and not much else! - The Great Wall review by CS
One of the things which makes a good action movie, especially one based on fantasy, is realism and believability! The landscapes are real or realistic, the props, sets and scenery are in perspective and blend in with their surroundings and the clothing is practice and fits the scenario. In other words a well assigned set should be realistic and believable. Sadly far too many films of this genre rely so heavily upon CGI that they fall flat on their faces! Whilst the CGI in this film is very good, it's over produced and over the top, detracting from what could have been quite a good film! The story line is very basic, the characters simplistic and the monsters unoriginal, in fact it all seems to have ben done before so many times, that it's become a bit of a cliche! Take any monster or action movie of the last ten years and relocate to China's great wall and there you have it! The action is continual, without much of a break, so much so, that this leaves little room for the story line or and character development, meaning the characters end up playing second fiddle to the action. Te explanation of where the monsters came from and what's happening and why, is told in the space of a few minutes and is then literally brushed aside, as we are swept away in a wash of CGI action. I do hate it when they take one actor and multiply them a thousand times and this is quite evident in this film, where many of the soldiers seem to be duplicated, with very little difference. Most f the film seems as though it was made in the studio and only the first five minutes look like they actually took place on location in China, near old parts of the original mud brick wall, rather than the actual solid stone wall itself! An ok action movie for a night in with the kids, but nothing special, this could have had any actor playing the parts, with very little emotion and much less empathy between the main characters and with massive holes in the plot, it's not going to win any Oscars anytime soon!
1 out of 2 members found this review helpful.
Critic review
The Great Wall review by Adrijan Arsovski - Cinema Paradiso
The Great Wall is not an exercise in filmmaking insofar filmmaking experiments go: there are the overused tropes of an imminent (CGI) threat that would wipe out the world; there are the heroic antics of peoples of ages long past gone; there are the archetypal heroes each wielding a different weapon and/or the power of wits; and there’s the quintessential action star found in the tired-looking Matt Damon who has difficulty imagining the imagined evil as embodied through these weirdly bizarre lizards looking to ruing everyone’s day in China. Despite all of the aforementioned though, and to the surprise of many myself included, The Great Wall is a fairly entertaining flick all throughout and a joy to be seen on the big screen (or a high resolution, to each his own).
The film starts off with William (played by Damon), who is on a quest to locate and retrieve “The Black Powder”, a plot devi… ehm, a deadly explosive, in order to employ its use for undisclosed reasons (yet). But, as his luck runs out, William gets entangled in an eon-lasting battle against monsters that attack every 60 years. He’s not the only hero however: Andy Lau plays the stoic Strategist Wand who commands his armies with an insatiable thirst for victory and glory; additionally, Jing Tian as Commander Lin Mae is also excellent, and for some reason, William Defoe is in this movie as well, which is awesome! Then, as the plot thickens, the creatures start attacking in hordes and it remains up to our heroes to save the day, and consequently, the movie’s financial investments as well.
The Great Wall features some shady decisions such as making the movie’s main antagonist a bunch of lifeless, ugly lizard-like monstrosities that elicit more chuckles than fear. To some extent, this is a reasonable move, since the film’s main selling point is its pandering toward 3D cinema enthusiasts and similar audiences that are only in for the spectacle and nothing more. But to another, the screenwriters could’ve thrown us audiences something to hang onto, instead of the lazy excuse that we got in order to justify the motivations of the attackers. Still, when the action is about to go down, one can really feel the sheer magnitude of what the filmmakers were trying to achieve, and for a while, this works in their favour. But, as our heroes employ seemingly impossible maneuvers to detract this great evil, the narrative structure quickly falls apart and the audience is left with nothing more than mere visual trickery to hold their attention until the end of the film.
All things considered, The Great Wall can be entertaining, as long as you’re not expecting to find any crouching tigers or hidden dragons in it.