![]() ![]() “Beyond the casting and the ceaseless onslaught of diverse special effects, Zhang and his Hollywood screenwriters have delivered nothing more than a formulaic monster movie - albeit one transposed to a historically undefined China where generals dressed like terra-cotta warriors already have mastered anesthetics, air travel and American-accented English.” Instead, though they are played by recognized actors with proven ability and charisma, these characters are just glorified cameos, stomping around in heavy armor looking angry or worried or both.” The similarity of the premise to past films “wouldn’t be such a problem if Zhang or his scribes had devoted even a smidgen of time to giving the respective commanders identities or back stories. Yin Hong, film professor at Tsinghua University, on the Sina Weibo microblog But in ‘The Great Wall,’ why are these soldiers fighting, dying and sacrificing their bodies? What spirit did they represent that they could persuade Garin, the ‘foreign bandit’ to stay behind? None of this is fully explained in the movie.” Freedom, honor, fairness, justice, love and the spirit of dying for a just cause - these are the most common values that they convey. “Most big Hollywood films are very simple, direct and universal in the system of values they embody. Yang Shiyang, movie critic, in Tencent’s Dajia Column And, even though he did not use very much red, there were still hints everywhere of his passion for vivid colors.” The scenes with the synchronized drummers recall the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, and the dense forest of arrows and the spear movements of the bungee-jumping female fighters are like those seen in Peking Opera. “Despite his best efforts, there are still traces of Zhang Yimou in the movie. Raymond Zhou, movie critic, in Tencent’s Dajia Column For foreigners unfamiliar with Chinese stories, a complicated story would have made them confused and disoriented.” But if the movie turns out to be an international box office success, then will also be seen as having contributed to that. “I’ve seen a lot of reviews that say ‘The Great Wall’ has a thin plot.
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