The Great Wall: More Giant Monsters from Legendary

[Dr Kain]

[jellydonut25]

The only white guy I see is Damon.

I wouldn't call it white washing. To me, white washing is taking a mjnority character and using a white actor. A white guy whose role is "white guy among other races" is just a crude marketing decision.

[lhb412]

Not quite whitewashing, but I can understand why people would think that. It does come from the same place of trying to make the movie more accessible because of a Western star.

[Dr Kain]

[XvGojira]

Isn't this this movie being made by the Chinese and Legendary is just one of the partners/producers/ whatever? How is this different than having Nick Adams in Monster Zero and Toho being partnered with UPA?

And from what I've gathered from comments, the Chinese movie going audience love seeing foreign film stars (Big name american actors).

Basically this movie is a big bet with Chinese and American production companies and they want to get as much money back as possible. So our trailer feature just Matt Damon, I'm sure theirs shows off the known talent in the movie from China (which apparently are some idols or something who are well known in China).

So this is a very different beast than most white washing "controversies" that have popped up. This isn't some American production that replaced a character that was traditionally not not-white, but a foreign based production that, in order to appeal to the country of the partnered production company, got some big named actors to draw other people in.

I didn't see this amount of controversy with . Maybe they're not as famous as Matt Damon to warrant it.

And look, for those complaining about how this is "bad", if co productions like this are successful, that mean American audience will be exposed to more Chinese (or whatever country the main production company hails from) actors and want to see them in more movies. So that when they do a story with characters traditionally from those countries they find actors who would not only be culturally appropriate but still get asses in the theaters on name recognition.

[lhb412]

The controversy stems from people not knowing this is essentially a mostly Chinese movie. Average folk just think its a Hollywood film set in ancient China starring a white fella.

[Kailem]

New trailer fresh from NYCC:

[mbozzo]

I don't know if I'm going to watch it on the screen. I might wait until it goes on DVD.

[Gargantuan Gargantua]

I'll watch it.

Hordes of lizard monsters just don't seem that interesting though.

That Pena though...

[jellydonut25]

This movie's gonna be banking on that Chinese box office, cuz it's got United States BOMB written all over it.

[Benjamin Haines]

[mr.negativity]

‘The Great Wall’ Extended Trailer Reveals Nearly 9 Minutes of Footage

[mr.negativity]

The Great Wall: The Art of the Film Hardcover – February 21, 2017

[mr.negativity]

Matt Damon doesn't save China in this capably directed but generic fantasy spectacle extolling Chinese culture and military excellence.

[mr.negativity]

io9:

The costumes in The Great Wall are, like, really beautiful. Think ancient Chinese Power Rangers. Plus, some of the action is innovative and exciting. Beyond that, though, there really isn’t much positive to say about Matt Damon’s very, very bad bilingual monster movie.

BMD:

Weird fun with not-so-subliminal messaging.

[DannyBeane]

I was wrong. This movie was awesome. The worst part of it was Matt Damon. He was very bland. The Chinese cast though was awesome. The scenery and set design were gorgeous. The costumes were way more impressive than I thought they'd be and other than a few bad cgi shots, the spfx were fairly well done.

[Henry88]

Box Office: Matt Damon’s ‘Great Wall’ Topples ‘Fist Fight,’ ‘Cure for Wellness’ on Thursday
http://variety.com/2017/film/news/box-o ... 201990801/

[mr.negativity]

[mr.negativity]

[jellydonut25]

For all the hullabaloo, and "controversy" and all, this is ultimately a really generic movie. Costuming and set design are more interesting than the typical Hollywood blockbuster but this does NOTHING to elevate itself above a typical 90s Hollywood blockbuster where good costuming and set design were the norm. It's pretty forgettable and uninspired. I didn't hate it, but I didn't like it and was not engaged. 2.5/5.