Its director is Zhang Yimou, who once upon a time was one of China’s greatest filmmakers, responsible for lauded historical dramas like Raise the Red Lantern as well as neo-wuxia action sagas like Hero.

The Chinese co-production with a budget of $135 million is the priciest movie to ever be shot entirely in the country. To its credit, though, it’s bad for entirely different reasons. It even features a “story by” credit for Edward Zwick, who in 2003 directed and co-wrote The Last Samurai, a history drama that, honest to god, included a climactic scene in which Tom Cruise reminds the Emperor of Japan to remain true to his country’s traditions. The Great Wall arrives in the midst of a spate of Hollywood efforts that have blithely appropriated Asian culture and identity while excluding actual Asian people - Doctor Strange, the forthcoming Ghost in the Shell, and Netflix's Iron Fist series, not to mention 2015's whitewashed Aloha. Matt Damon is not Chinese, but per Hollywood tradition, that’s not something that would ever get in the way of his saving China onscreen, or stop him from demonstrating how much better he understands Chinese ways than actual Chinese people. The Great Wall isn’t really a white savior story, though you’d be forgiven for assuming that from the poster, which consists only of the giant, glowering face of Matt Damon.

Reviews of the great wall movie