La Grande Muraille

As a constant film goer I was really impressed with this film. It was entertaining. The story worked well. The acting was great. And the effects were really impressive. I watched it on a big screen in Bangkok and enjoyed the experience. The sound was equally impressive.

I just can't understand why the really negative reviews abound. Some are cursing it for having foreign actors. Others about the political situation etc. And the poor director is even getting a caning.

The story is about a legend. And it was wonderful to just sit back and let someone tell a story. I nearly didn't go because of all the bad reviews but I am glad I went and made up my own mind.

Go and see it.

The story is really nothing special, it's just an excuse for the action. The action is ok, they had a lot of money to spend and it shows. Acting was perfectly ok, no great perfomances here. Even the monsters were ok, nothing awesome but enough. But it was entertaining enough.

First of all, this movie does a lot of things right. The costume designs are great, the set designs are very convincing and the CGI is, although not cutting edge, up to modern standards in film-making. The music score could have been better but maybe the composer had a Chinese audience in mind.

The acting will not win any Oscars but we see some genuine moments of emotion and bonding and believe it or not but there are one or two scenes with a good suspense arc. Moreover, Jing Tian has a nice smile and looks really fine in uniform. That might be my own idiosyncratic standard but an attractive female lead certainly adds to the "positives".

With all that praise then, why does it fall short of being a truly great movie? As my summary indicates it is simply overloaded with too many plot devices. It's a hero/East meets West/monster/action/tale of betrayal and redemption/romance/fantasy movie loaded with Chinese symbolism capped by a rather weak, anticlimactic and hurried cookie-cutter ending. The audience never has enough time to get emotionally invested in the characters. The script tries but there simply isn't enough time to do it all and eventually the movie does too little to explore any of the plot elements and characters.

Nevertheless, it is not a bad movie and certainly not ambitious enough to deserve any of the vitriol people read into the story without ever watching the movie. I was entertained but not really awestruck.

OK. It is not an Academy award winner. It does not aspire to be. It is a two hour-roller-coaster popcorn flick. Decent CGI, acceptable acting, OK props, OK story. This story won't stay with me as a memorable piece of art. But I enjoyed it for what ir is, and had a good time. Go in with that level of expectations and you wont be disappointed! Value for money.

If you don't have any expectations, this film might surprise you a bit. I really liked the special effects, even if I started laughing when I first saw the antagonists.

Most scenes between battles were quite awkward, full of clichés. Yet, once the battle begins, any cliché this film might have is really fun to watch and not at all annoying.

What I hated the most was the unfortunate English accent... used during the Song dynasty (960-1279).

Overall, the plot is quite linear and simple and is centered around one important moment. Character development was welcoming, but not impressive and definitely not unexpected. The best part was not fulfilling the love sub-plot, even though I half expected this and I would have been really disappointed if it had happened.

Anyway, it was an enjoyable film with better 3D effects than I expected and many other films, so give it a try. But be open minded and admire what is to be admired.