Dearest Blog: Today it was off to Marquee Cinemas for oddball blockbuster The Great Wall.
Spoiler level here will be mild, nothing you wouldn't know from the trailers.
A pair of mercenaries is conscripted into battle to save a Chinese city from hordes of terrifying creatures.
Dear reader(s): Thanks to a painful trailer, my best hope for The Great Wall was that it would be hilariously bad and not just bad. I am pleased to report that, while it's not winning any awards anytime soon, The Great Wall IS actually a pretty enjoyable way to pass a couple hours.
Liberally seasoned from the cliche jar, the Great Wall is deeply, deeply idiotic. Jarringly modern phrasing and Matt Damon's weirdly stilted diction are no help with the clunky script. The most pointed attempts at humor often miss the mark, but a light tone works strongly in the movie's favor. The Great Wall boasts some lovely scenery, spectacular costumes, excellent precision battle choreography, and solid creature effects. I didn't see the movie in 3D, but there are a few dizzying scenes that I expect would make it worth the upcharge and glasses headache. Wall-to-wall (see what I did there?) action never comes at the story's expense, and is perfectly accompanied by Ramin Djawadi's rousing score.
The Great Wall clocks in at 103 minutes and is rated PG13 for "sequences of fantasy action violence."
The story and the acting are nothing to write home about, but The Great Wall is a fun outing that's more than worth seeing on the big screen for it's extraordinary production values. Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Great Wall gets five.
Until next time...
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