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 The Great Wall 

Rate this film:
A 0%  0%  [ 0 ]
B 40%  40%  [ 4 ]
C 40%  40%  [ 4 ]
D 10%  10%  [ 1 ]
F 10%  10%  [ 1 ]
Total votes : 10

 The Great Wall 
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Post Re: The Great Wall
The point is there should have been more than three types of units. The queen. It's protectors and the cannon fodder. It was just very frustrating for the film to limit themselves like that for a fantasy film.

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Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:46 pm
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Right. I see. So, you wanted it like all other fantasy-creature-features. I do not see why more different types would make it better. So, a flying one, perhaps? Which would defeat the object of having a wall! Dramatically altering a key component of the legend is unnecessary. I didn't hear many people suggest that Jesus should have had the power of flight in The Passion of the Christ so he could evade his captors. Oh, because it is a story you are familiar with from birth. But because this is new to you, you think it is fine to chop and change things.

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Tue Feb 21, 2017 11:58 pm
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Post Re: The Great Wall
There is an actual Chinese legend suggesting the Great Wall was constructed to guard against monsters? (I will not touch whether its social or cultural grip is comparable to belief in Christ.)

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Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:49 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
No, I don't think so. The legend is the monsters and the reason they came. The Great Wall of China has been added for this story.

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Wed Feb 22, 2017 12:57 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
I don't really grasp nghtvsn's gripe on the monster versatility, I didn't look to further expecting more from it, like how Pacific Rim did it for example. The monsters in The Great Wall have a nice brutality to it, I did like that about the film. But I just found the plot, involving the magnetism factor too, uninteresting.


Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:26 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
stuffp wrote:
I don't really grasp nghtvsn's gripe on the monster versatility, I didn't look to further expecting more from it, like how Pacific Rim did it for example. The monsters in The Great Wall have a nice brutality to it, I did like that about the film. But I just found the plot, involving the magnetism factor too, uninteresting.

You can just end your comment with "I did like that about the film", you know. Not every comment needs to be a perfectly weighted mini-review. It is ok to be positive about things you like! ;)

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Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:28 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Hehe...yeah I have that tendency.


Wed Feb 22, 2017 1:47 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
I had a blast with this. I loved pretty much everything about it. :thumbsup:

Special compliments to the armor design, Tian Jing, and Tian Jing in the blue armor. :wub2:


Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:37 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Finally someone as enthusiastic about it as I am! Good man, SolC9. :thumbsup:

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Thu Feb 23, 2017 12:55 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Oh jeez, not that they're bad, but don't tell me this is getting KJ noms for best Costume and Score at the end of the year.


Thu Feb 23, 2017 2:37 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Nah. Nothing from the start of the year gets noms by the end of it, hence why all the "awards films" are released in awards season. People will forget the greatness of The Great Wall by then....some have even forgotten the greatness already! :P

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Thu Feb 23, 2017 5:02 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
I'll be nominating/recommending it for Best Score, Best Art Direction, Best Original Song ("Bridge of Fate"), and Most Overlooked Film unless five better options are released in the remaining ten months.

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Wed Mar 01, 2017 2:01 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
I've been thinking about the film recently since I ordered The Great Wall: The Art of the Film from Amazon, and one thing I kind of hated was the beginning. The use of visual effects to produce the opening shot of closing in on one brick in the wall and then for it to edge itself out. All of that being in digitally-created does not start the film off on a good footing. It would have been better if the film begun immediately at Damon's crew being chased by the Khitan, which admittedly also isn't a great opening (neither is the cave scene) but it is better than being immediately disappointed by seeing sub-par visual effects.

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Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:00 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
This is my favourite piece in the film:



It is only short (1:30) but I love it. Sung when Hanyu's character dies and they send the lanterns into the sky. Beautiful score.

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Thu Mar 02, 2017 1:26 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Algren wrote:
Damon's crew being chased by the Khitan


This is how I recall the beginning of the film, I don't remember it started with a shot of a brick in the wall. I think starting with the chase wasn't necessarily bad, it could work...like Midnight Special has a great, suddenly in the action opening. The Great Wall desert chase in the beginning doesn't feel as grand though, but it's just fine still.


Thu Mar 02, 2017 4:57 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
stuffp wrote:
Algren wrote:
Damon's crew being chased by the Khitan


This is how I recall the beginning of the film, I don't remember it started with a shot of a brick in the wall.

YOU PROBABLY ARRIVED LATE! ;)

The brick in the wall is a five-second effect/transition from the opening credits to the chase scene. The first scene in the film is that scene.

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Thu Mar 02, 2017 9:34 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Haha, it's damning, but I think I have record recently of arriving just once the film has started on half the occasions I think. So yeah, I might have really missed it. This was a New Year's resolution of mine to improve though.


Thu Mar 02, 2017 12:25 pm
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Post Re: The Great Wall
The Great Wall of China top British bucket lists. I've not been to any on the list, despite living in China for years. :funny:

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Wed Mar 08, 2017 2:24 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
The Great Wall is the very definition of a handsome production, but then that should be no surprise given that it was directed by Yimou Zhang. The costumes! I'm rarely even aware of movie costumes, but the sumptuous military uniforms were off the charts! I almost want to see it again just to drink in those incredible costumes.The story itself was only a serviceable b-movie mythical adventure, but the delightful shabbiness of the cgi of the monsters, the weapons/mechanisms, and of the wall itself elevated it above its pay grade. Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe were playing it unusually flat, which helped to keep it closer to feeling real, but prevented it from catapulting over the top like Gods Of Egypt. Andy Lau didn't have much to work with here, but Tian Jing looked great (ahead of her role in Kong: Skull Island tomorrow). The Great Wall is solid. *B+*


(BTW, it's nice to see this type of multi-market international film doing reasonably well. It's the return of the spaghetti western! I can't wait to see how Chinese film continues to breech the great wall of American cinema.)


Last edited by tree and a half on Wed Mar 08, 2017 4:57 am, edited 1 time in total.



Wed Mar 08, 2017 4:32 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Jing Tian is probably giving BJs to the head of Wanda. :funny:

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Wed Mar 08, 2017 4:55 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Algren wrote:
The Great Wall of China top British bucket lists. I've not been to any on the list, despite living in China for years. :funny:


Wow, The Great Wall is definitely overrated I thought...some of the views from the wall are nice, but even that I didn't find so spectacular (maybe there was some smog clouding the view a bit too, but I don't remember well enough when I went there in August 2013).

I haven't been to any of the others on the list though, but I saw the Empire State Building up close when in NY.


Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:10 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
The list doesn't interest me besides The Great Wall of China, Christ the Redeemer, and The Colosseum.

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Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:14 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Now tree and half has seen it and in his true fashion favors it against the mold The Great Wall is running itself out of contention for Most Overlooked Film.


Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:17 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
Against the mold? Most KJers have liked it, dude. It's just you that was extremely negative about it.

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Wed Mar 08, 2017 5:47 am
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Post Re: The Great Wall
I meant more against the general critical mold only, he tends to agree with KJ sometimes, but he's always against the consensus critical opinion. If Tree would be on RT, his profile would say, agrees with the Tomatometer 0% of the time.

For me, I'd like to see it again after having talked so much about it since, but for right now this lingers for me:
tree and a half wrote:
The story itself was only a serviceable b-movie mythical adventure


Wed Mar 08, 2017 7:10 am
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