Skip to main content


Rating: 4/5
Review: "The Great Wall IMAX 3D movie review" (104 minutes)

"The Great Wall has generic plot and characters but the strong technical aspects, Zhang's visuals and immersive 3D, make it slightly more than a mindless fantasy entertainment."

The Great Wall is a big budget fantasy film directed by Zhang Yimou, famed for Hero and House of Flying Daggers. Although the trailers promised plenty of spectacle, people find it controversial and even claim that it is like an asian film being whitewashed. It led to negative reviews when the film was first released in China. Many say that while it strikes as a visually appealing film, the story is horrendous. Since then, despite the huge box office opening, the earnings so far has been a disappointment. So amidst all these negativity, is there really no value in this?

The story: Director Zhang Yimou may struggle in telling a coherent story but it is undeniable that he knows how to cook up strong visuals. Running less than 2 hours, he struggles to develop the characters and story fully. The characters are set as safe generic characters. They are there to spring into action whenever needed. There is not much of a story. Given the short run time, it is rushed and things just fall into place with film convenience. It is a straight forward fast paced action fantasy that may only be interested in launching striking visuals into the eyes of a viewer. After watching this, I disagree with the whitewashing controversy. Although Matt Damon and Pedro Pascal hold the film, the asian cast have their fair share of screen time, action and intelligence. The foreign actors are not gloried. Jing Tian is commendable as the strong asian female lead who is able to stand out in the male-dominated film. Director Zhang is smart enough to balance them. The 3 major action scenes are staged well with lots of spectacle. They are integrated well with CGI. Acting wise is alright. Most of the cast play a stereotyped character so there is not much for them to play around. Music by Ramin Djawadi is suitably epic.

IMAX 3D: It elevates the generic film to another level. The usage of 3D is well used and immersed me into the fantasy world. Without the additional dimension, I would have given this a lower score. The sense of scope and depth is translated well in IMAX. The 3D enhances the already strong Zhang's visual direction.

Overall: Zhang's vision may not be appreciated by many critics but they cannot deny that he has one of the best visual eyes in the film industry. The Great Wall has a generic fantasy action plot but what make it entertaining are the strong visuals and immersive 3D. On the whole, because of the strong technical aspects, I was entertained throughout. This is one of the few films that I feel that may benefit with a longer director cut.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rating: 3.4/5 Review: "The Spirit of Ramayana" (103 minutes) "A passable Thai horror movie with an interesting concept but weak execution." As a low-budget horror movie, it has enough entertainment values. In the recent years, there are a few strong Thai horror movies with decent production values and there are many mediocre low-budget horror movies. The Spirit of Ramayana is somewhat in the middle. It may not look that polished but its themes and concept are intriguing enough. The story: The narrative is straight forward however its editing made the movie look messy and disjointed. It is a simple story about Mintra, a young dancer who is rejected for the main role because she cannot pull off an evil and sensual side. However, a spirit helps her to unleash her dark side. On paper, it sounds like a supernatural Black Swan. It lacks the emotional depth of Black Swan as the director seems only interested in churning out cheap scares. As the plot develops fur...
Post a Comment
Read more
Best and Worst movies of 2011 2011 is over! It sees many good movies so it was kind of tricky to list the best 4 movies of 2011. It had been a good year for movies. Let's see if 2012 is any better. 1.Transformers: Dark of the Moon Rating: 4.5/5 It is one of the best 3D movie ever. It has cool action, great 3D and robots. It may be the final Transformers for Michael Bay. Only thing that can be improved is that rushed out ending. Other than that, it could be 2011 best action movie. 2.Sucker Punch Rating: 4.5/5 It is sad to see the critics slamming this movie. I find its presentation kind of cool and unique. The action is not bad too. Zack Synder really has a sense of cool visual which the movie a more interesting view. 3.Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Rating: 4.5/5 The end is finally here. Although it is the most action-packed movie in the franchise, I can't help but feel a little disappointed with the climax. I wanted a longer and more epic battle between Harry and Voldemo...
Post a Comment
Read more
Rating: 4.3/5 Review: "American Made film review" "An entertaining and fun well-made film boosted by great direction and acting." Doug Liman and Tom Cruise paired up together again for a fast-paced and colorful biography on Barry Seal. American Made may not have the blockbuster action but it holds up on its own firmly with the help of a great direction by Doug. Tom Cruise is definitely the main highlight of the film and he is what made it so entertaining. The story: The pace is brisk; it takes the audience on a crazy ride from the start and never slows down. Though it never felt boring, sometimes I felt that it could have slowed down for some development. After the film ended, it seems that Doug and Tom had a clear mind on just keeping the audience as entertained as they can be. It cuts to the chase and never dwells on anything such as emotions. It moves quickly from event to event. Advantage is that I was not bored at all. Disadvantage is that it felt li...
Post a Comment
Read more