Angry Badger Movie Review: The Great Wall

Hello everyone and welcome to another movie review. Today I'll be reviewing the Great Wall

But what is the Great Wall you ask?
    In the time of the Song dynasty during the reign of the Renzong Emperor, a few miles north of the Great Wall, a mercenary group originally consisting of twenty men searching for black powder are pursued by Khitan bandits, who have already killed some of the men. Upon escaping they seek refuge in a cave but are then attacked by an unknown monster, leaving only William and Tovar alive, with the former having slashed off the monster's hand. The two decide to bring the arm with them. The next day, they stumble upon the Great Wall and are taken prisoner by Chinese soldiers of a secretive military sect called the Nameless Order, led by General Shao and Strategist Wang.

Unbiased review:

The Great Wall is an action packed adventure with great CGI and stunning graphics. It also has a nice western/eastern blend in areas like weaponry, armor, and fighting techniques. The Great Wall is one of the movies that hits the ground running but offers little in the story department. We get information about why William and his friend are in China, and we even get information about the monsters they are fighting. But its still lacking a real backbone for the film to rest on. It's overall an okay action movie for someone looking to pass 2 hours.

The Great Wall is rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, thematic elements, and brief language.

           Things to Consider before watching the movie:

Violence: The Great Wall is on the more violent side of a PG-13 movie, there are quite a few scenes in which people are mulled or eaten by the Taotie (the monsters). We see corps of both people and Taotie littering the ground in one scene. In more than one scene we see the Taotie with human blood dripping from their mouths. The Taotie are also stabbed, speared, exploded, and shot with arrows. They bleed green so it isn't that graphic.

Swearing: There is little swearing in the movie, I know Bas***d is said once along with He** and some blasphemy.

Other Negatives: We see the Taotie feeding the "Queen" Taotie (which involves regurgitating the humans they have eaten). The movie also gives off a horror feel during the first few minutes of the movie but they change that.


Warning! Spoilers and Opinions lay Beyond! Enter at your own Risk

Opinionated review:

       The Great Wall was one of those movies that could go either way, be really cool or really dumb. As it turns out it just kind of lands in the middle. I won't say is terrible but I can't really say it's great. It's just okay (this coming from the guy who likes man vs. monster movies). Things I did like about it where:

The Costumes: I didn't know if I would like all the different color armors in the movie but they worked it out well.

The Mix: What I mean by that is they weren't afraid to mix the western and eastern style of movie, cutler, and weaponry.

The Humor: Despite the seriousness the movie wanted to portray there where, surprisingly, some really good humor between too friends.

The Action: It did have nice action scenes.

And that's about it. Everyone had nice acting but what the movie really needed was help with the main story. The plot was there but it just wasn't enough for me to get behind this movie. We also don't get much character development, so if your one of those "It's all about character development" people you probably won't like this movie. I already mentioned it can be a little bloody so I don't really need to say anything else. The movie also felt kind of rushed which brought it down a little bit. My overall thoughts are it was just an okay movie.

So what do you think? Have you seen the movie? do you Think I hit it on the nail or did I miss the broad side of the barn? Let me know your opinion in the comments down below

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