Movie Poster

I've been left for dead twice... it was bad luck.

For who?

The people who left me!

# Review

A group of European mercenaries travel to China in search of gunpowder. After being ambushed by unknown monsters, mercenaries William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal) arrive at the Great Wall, where they discover that the Chinese have been fending off these monsters for centuries.

This film is interesting for me because it really marked one of the high-water marks of Chinese influence on Hollywood (before the Chinese government cracked down on overseas investments for Chinese companies). This film came out right at the heels of the Wanda Group's acquisition of Legendary Entertainment and is almost designed to be a propaganda film to showcase Chinese cinema to the world.

To that effect the film is pretty mediocre. The plot is generic and while the film is filled with both Chinese stars (such as Andy Lau, Zhang Hanyu, and Jing Tian) as well as Hollywood stars (such as Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, and Willem Dafoe), the performances from both sides can only be described as dutiful. Everyone performs their roles, but there were no standout performances.

The action sequences are impressive but I couldn't get past the corny multi-coloured armours worn by the soldiers. Zhang Yimou is actually a really solid filmmaker who excels in portraying deeply emotional and nuanced stories. Unfortunately, this film is neither, but I would say it's a fun bad movie.

# Conclusion

A very generic film that had more budget than sense.

# Overall rating: 6.6

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