Spoilers The Great Wall (2016)

[Aeson]

The Gorge is the mutant offspring of a RomCom and Doom.

I can't decide if this is a bad thing or a good thing.

 

[Paul Farquhar]

I can't decide if this is a bad thing or a good thing.

The film is good, but genre mash up feels weird.

 

[Tonguez]

The film is good, but genre mash up feels weird.

surprised to see Sigourney Weaver in the cast list! I take it she is the BBEG?

 

[cbwjm]

I've always meant to watch this, it looks like one of those fun over the top movies where you watch it for a bit of fun rather than an in depth plot.

 

[Aeson]

surprised to see Sigourney Weaver in the cast list! I take it she is the BBEG?

Yes, you would be correct.

 

[jian]

I've always meant to watch this, it looks like one of those fun over the top movies where you watch it for a bit of fun rather than an in depth plot.

Yes, I'd definitely recommend watching it while doing something else, like planning your next D&D campaign. The bleed-over might be useful.

 

[Deset Gled]

I saw The Great Wall in the theater. I found it to be solidly in the "stupid but fun" category. Not particularly memorable. Well below DADHAT, well above D&D 2000.

OTOH, I was very disappointed in The Gorge.

 

[jian]

I saw The Great Wall in the theater. I found it to be solidly in the "stupid but fun" category. Not particularly memorable. Well below DADHAT, well above D&D 2000.

OTOH, I was very disappointed in The Gorge.

I will say that The Great Wall is significantly better than a parallel film, Dragon Blade (2015), which is a Jackie Chan vehicle set on the Silk Road. It has a rarely seen setting (the Silk Road in the Roman era, kung fu vs legionnaire) but it's a bit of a waste of everyone involved (John Cusack, Adrien Brody, Jackie Chan).

 

[GreyLord]

I enjoyed the movie. It had been a while and I saw it available on Streaming, so I watched it again over the holidays.

I like the mix of Hong Kong/Chinese action (which you rarely see in Western Films) which is over the top (I suppose Western Films are over the top as well, but in a different way) in how they do things at times (closest types of comparisons I'd say would be things like the Matrix films, or John Wick...ironically which both have Keanu Reaves).

The story is dialed down a bit (probably due to it being a mix of western and eastern filmmaking), in my opinion, in order to make it more accessible to Western audiences. This probably ends up hurting the film more than helping it.