‘The Great Wall’ Find Out Why It Was Really Built

film_TGW_featureimage_desktop_1600x900_2.jpgAccording to writers, Carlo Bernard, Doug Miro, and Tony Gilroy the wall was built to keep out monsters; big, bad, souless monsters that resemble gigantic prehistoric reptiles, who swarm the wall every 60 years to kill and bring the dead bodies back to their Queen so she can eat. Apparently, her royal majesty  has a ravenous appetite.

When the film opens, we meet William (Matt Damon)  a  mercenary in China during the Song dynasty. He and his crew, consisting of twenty men, are searching for black powder to bring back to Europe and sell for major bucks.

Unfortunately, things aren’t going smoothly for the group. They are pursued by Khitan bandits, who wind up killing everyone except William, his sidekick, Tovar (Pedro Pascal) and two others.

The four men seek refuge in a nearby cave, but are soon attacked by an invisible monster. Even though they didn’t see it, they know it’s a monster because Tovar slashed off the creature’s arm and it definitely did not belong to a human.

The next day, with the creature’s arm in hand, they head out and stumble upon The Great Wall. Before they can take in the beautiful scenery, they are taken prisoner by Chinese soldiers who belong to a secretive military sect called The Nameless Order, led by General Shao (Zhang Hanyu)

When William shows the General the arm, he tells them that it belongs to the Taotie (their name for the monsters) which they believe were originally  sent from the gods to punish the Emperor for abusing his authority way back when.  Actually a meteorite probably brought them, but why bother with scientific fact.

The Order has been training for the last sixty years in preparation for the Taotie’s return and now the time has come. Luckily, the General’s second in command is a beautiful Chinese woman named Lin Mae (Tian Jing) who speaks perfect english, thanks to a man named Sir Ballard (Willem Dafoe) who they captured some 25 years ago. Otherwise, William  and Tovar wouldn’t have a clue to what is going on.

‘The Great Wall’ brilliantly directed by Yimou Zhang (‘House of the Flying Daggers’) is an epic action fantasy with amazing special effects, dazzling visuals, incredible stunts, breathtaking battle scenes and fantastic set pieces.  But that’s not all it is. This   is a film about people from two different worlds coming together to fight a common enemy and in turn, they come to understand and respect on another.

I saw ‘The Great Wall’ which opens in theaters February 17, 2017 in 3D and I recommend you do the same. I absolutely love this film and for that reason, I gave it five bagels out of five.

Joan Alperin

About Joan Alperin

Joan was born in Brooklyn and spent many years working as an actress in New York City. Even though she traveled extensively, Joan couldn't imagine living anywhere else.. Well one day, she met someone at a party who regaled her with stories about living in L. A. specifically Topanga Canyon. A few weeks later she found herself on an airplane bound for Los Angeles. Joan immediately fell in love with the town and has been living here for the last twenty years and yes, she even made it to Topanga Canyon, where she now resides, surrounded by nature, deer, owls and all kinds of extraordinary alien creatures.. Joan continued acting, but for the last several years (besides reviewing plays and film) she has been writing screenplays. Joan was married to a filmmaker who created the cult classic films, (way before she knew him) Faces of Death. As a result of his huge following, they created a funny movie review show entitled Two Jews on Film, where Joan and her husband, John would review movies and rate them with bagels You can see their reviews by going to youtube.com/twojewsonfilm. Although it's now only one Jew - Joan is occasionally joined by her beautiful Pekingnese and Japanese Chin.
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