However, Damon’s very Caucasian William is indisputably the hero of the story, while most of the Chinese cast is dehumanized as an anonymous though well-choreographed mass (appropriately called “The Nameless Order”) whose sole purpose is to exist as a stage set for the White Man’s moral and emotional journey. It’s true that the film has a Chinese director and an almost entirely Chinese cast, and that it was released in China months before it premiered in the United States. It is not difficult to guess who saves China from the taotie in the end. Special White Man William impresses a female commander, who teaches him about trust and honor. Special White Man William saves the life of a hairless whimpering boy-child of a soldier (Luhan). When monsters attack, Special White Man William dazzles the Chinese with his archery skills and slow-motion fight sequences. The plot is so predictable that spoiler alerts seem superfluous: Special White Man William (Damon) and his friend Tobar (Pedro Pascal) are European mercenaries captured by an elite Chinese army. But The film’s visual excess is the least of its problems.
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The cinematographic beauty of certain scenes is striking that is, until mediocre CGI and an inundation of excessively painterly backdrops leave the film looking something like a cross between a video game and a Windows desktop background. Its $150 million budget-the largest of any film shot entirely in China-was used successfully to create a visual spectacle. In the interest of diplomacy, it should be acknowledged that “The Great Wall” is not a film entirely without merit.
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Now that the film has been released, however, it seems fair to say that the criticism was more than justified. “I think you are undermining your own credibility when you attack something without seeing it,” he stated at the New York Comic-Con shortly after the backlash began. “We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that white man can save the world,” tweeted Constance Wu leading actress in “Fresh Off the Boat.” Damon defended his casting, asking audiences to watch the film before judging it. When poster and trailer for “The Great Wall” were released last fall, numerous Asian-American actors and activists condemned the casting of Matt Damon, a white man, as the lead in a film set in ancient China.
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According to the film, these beasts exist as a reminder of the dangers of human greed, and the great irony is that the movie is itself an example of the disaster that arises when the desire to sell movie tickets to white audiences overshadows artistic integrity and social responsibility. The central premise of famed Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s “The Great Wall” is that the titular structure was built to protect China from hordes of rapacious flesh-eating lizard-horse-cows called taotie (spelled “tao tei” in the subtitles possibly as a result of incorrect Romanization).