The Great Wall [Blu-ray] [2017]

Not the best film I've watched, but a 'ripping' yarn all the same.

West meets East in a film that tries to do a Hollywood blockbuster style movie with a story and visuals straight out of Chinese cinema.Thus it has a western leading man in the shape of Matt Damon. And is directed by legendary chinese director Zhang Yimou. Best known for 'Hero'. 'House of Flying Daggers', and 'Curse of the Golden Flower.' All of which show superb visuals.It considers a certain famous chinese landmark. The Great Wall. The thing about Walls is, you build them to keep something out.It's long ago, and western warrior and accomplished bowman William [Matt Damon] and his sidekick Tovar [Pedro Pascal, best known as the Red Viper on Game of Thrones] are heading east, to look for a certain black powder they've heard exists there. Gunpowder could be a great weapon for them. But on route, they find the Wall. And the order of warriors who guard it with their lives. And the monsters they're there to fight. People are going to have to learn to work together, for the sake of the future of the human race...The eastern part of this film is fine. Amazing visuals, some great design and costumes, excellent action scenes. But it also manages to like some western blockbusters in that the story is just a little hollow. This is not going to be remembered as one of Matt Damon's greatest roles. He does fine as a leading man, but there's precious little to his character. Although Pedro Pascal has an underwritten role, and makes an impression via effortless charisma.The chinese cast acquit themselves well, Jing Tian as the female lead really making an impression. It's not a film in which one side sweeps the other off their feet and makes them stand back while they save the date. The clash of cultures is well balanced. Both learning from the other. And the narrative proceeds along nicely enough in doing this. The three main set piece battles all being eye catching.So it's one of those blockbusters that is perfectly watchable while it's going on and does hold the attention fine. But not a film that will, once the credits have finished, stay in the mind for long. Ultimately a perfectly decent piece of escapism, so long as you don't expect too much from it.Some scenes do have subtitles, which can't be turned off.Language and subtitle options on the dvd are:Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Turkish.Subtitles: English, Arabic, Danish, Spanish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Hindi, Icelandic, Italian, Norwegian, Portugese, Swedish, Turkish.It's also English audio captioned.The disc begins with a couple of trailers, which can be skipped via the next button on the dvd remote.It contains the usual flyer with code for downloading digital version of the film to a digital device.Extras are:Deleted and extended scenes:Five deleted. Three extended. The former all tend to be scenes of people walking and talking. The latter aren't much longer than the original versions. Watch them all in a row and they only run for six minutes in total. Or watch them individually, if you prefer.Matt Damon in China. Two minutes about his experience working there.Working with Zhang Yimou. Two minutes on what it's like to work with the director.Great wall visual effects. Two minutes about the visual effects.Man vs monster. Three featurettes showing how each of the three main set pieces were shot. All run three minutes. You can watch them individually or in a row.Weapons of war. Three minutes about the weapons and props used.Designing a secret world. Three minutes about the design of costumes and sets.These are all quite watchable and interesting, if a bit brief.

DVD arrived a week earlier than expected (yipee) and was in excellent condition. Happy with the seller.And the film has extras, and they're good. I do like a DVD with extras!The only reason this has four stars rather than five is that there are no English subtitles for the hard of hearing. Having seen the film on TV with subtitles, I was a bit surprised. I'm only slightly deaf, but have been watching films using subtitles for a couple of years now, rather than turn the volume up and treat my neighbours to whatever I'm watching. Also, just because it's louder, it doesn't mean that I'm going to understand what the actors are muttering about all the time (it's OK, Matt Damon, I'm not suggesting your diction is any less than excellent, it's a generalisation. I have tinnitus so it's also a case of hearing and filtering at the same time). The Mandarin and Spanish speakers in the film are subtitled, but it's no reason not to include English subs (other languages are available, this is just what I need!) in the languages options of the set up. Also, the subtitles which are given are a bit on the small side! What's wrong with giving us a slightly larger font?

Saw this in the cinema and I really liked it. I admit that I was expecting this to be the real story of how the Great Wall was made but the legend that it's based on suits me fine. The Great Wall follows two mercenaries, William (Matt Damon) and Tovar (Pedro Pascal), who are searching for a legendary weapon known as Black Powder when they end up prisoners of the Nameless Order on the Great Wall in amidst of a war with the TaoTei, green monsters who surface every 60 years to feed and must help their captors defeat the monsters before they reach the capital of Bianliang and become unstoppable. Like every movie, there are good and bad things.One of the best things was the special effects. The Nameless Order were very impressive with colourful armour and effective weapons and strategies and the battle sequences were some of my favorite scenes. I really liked the character of Lin Mae (Jing Tian). She was a strong female character who was bad ass and given room to shine when she became the leader of the Nameless Order but it's a shame that the writers felt the need to her flirt with William in the least obvious way possible.One of my pet hates about this movie is the presence of Ballard (Willem Dafoe), another English mercenary who, like William and Tovar, ended up a prisoner on the Great Wall 25 years earlier for searching for Black Powder. His only purpose is to plot to steal the Black Powder and run off and make a fortune and the film probably would have worked fine without him. His presence is what wastes Tovar as a character. He had potential but foolishly teams up with Ballard to steal Black Powder and spends most of the third act wandering around the lands surrounding the wall after Ballard betrays him. Another thing that I hate was the treatment of the Tao Tei. The entire army of Tao Tei, including the Queen, looks the same and the only ones who were different were the Queen's bodyguards who could turn their wings into shields.Overall, The Great Wall is a good film and while the critics may have bashed it and audiences stayed away from it, it's better than it looks. If you're looking for something that will allow you to switch your brain off for two hours, The Great Wall is what you're looking for.

I brought this film for my family, as we watched it on the television quite a while back. The main reason l brought it is because when there is nothing much on the box we can always watch it instead of getting bored.