About two months ago, the first teaser trailer for ‘The Great Wall’ was released. The first English-language film from the amazing filmmaker Zhang Yimou of ‘House of Flying Daggers’ fame should have been something to celebrate, especially because it was a Hollywood and China co-production that was shot in China and features a largely Asian cast. However, it was surrounded by controversy when Matt Damon was placed front and center of all the marketing materials, which lead to cries of another major motion picture with a white savior. While that hasn’t exactly died down despite the director addressing the criticisms, the Chinese director, his American star, and a number of other cast members appeared at New York Comic Con to debut a brand new trailer that gives a better look at what we can expect from the movie.
When Legendary Pictures took over the Theater at Madison Square Garden over the weekend, they brought in Matt Damon, Pedro Pascal, Jian Yung, Junkiai Wang, and director Zhang Yimou to premiere the latest trailer for the upcoming creature feature centered on the Great Wall of China. The preview showed off some of the epic action sequences and insane visuals that we’ve come to expect from Yimou. And although Damon remains somewhat at the center, we do get an idea of who some of the other main characters are this time around. You can check it out for yourself below, followed by the film’s official synopsis:
Starring global superstar Matt Damon and directed by one of the most breathtaking visual stylists of our time, Zhang Yimou (‘Hero’, ‘House of Flying Daggers’), Legendary’s ‘The Great Wall’ tells the story of an elite force making a valiant stand for humanity on the world’s most iconic structure. The first English-language production for Yimou is the largest film ever shot entirely in China.
Though there was no audience Q&A portion of this panel, Damon and company certainly had much more to say about ‘The Great Wall’ in the press conference afterwards. We here at ScienceFiction.com were there and will give you the scoop very soon. Until then, what do you think about the latest trailer? How does it match up to Yimou’s other films? And do you think that Matt Damon’s character is still taking up too much spotlight despite there being five major heroes in the story? Let us know in the comments.
‘The Great Wall’ starring Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, and Andy Lau hits theaters on February 17, 2017.
Despite being a “professional writer”, Ben likes run-on sentences far too much. For more of his attempts at being funny and the occasional insightful thought, follow him on Twitter and Instagram.
