the-great-wall

While ‘The Great Wall‘ was initially hounded by many for appearing to have a “white savior” styled character in Matt Damon (‘The Martian’,’Interstellar’), the actor has not only clarified what the movie is about but his role in it as well.

Honestly, I’m not going to lie, this sounds like it could be a truly visually wild ride that I can’t wait to take. Honestly, the simple fact that Zhang Yimou (‘Hero’,’House of Flying Daggers’) was behind it would have had me seeing it eventually anyway.

So the big deal is actually why is Damon’s character there as the trailer looked that he would be the one in charge of things? Well, it doesn’t quite work that way:

“There are three Westerners in the movie; it’s Pedro and me and Willem Dafoe. And we play these guys who are mercenaries who basically come to steal gun powder from the Chinese and we’ve heard of this legendary weapon and we want to bring it back to the West and try to conquer the West with it. And we kind of stumble upon this secretive army that basically exists to defend the Great Wall against these monsters that attack every 60-years. And we kind of stumble upon them on the eve of this battle and prove ourselves useful enough that we end up fighting with them against this assault of monsters.”

So this could be thought of as more of a redemption story than anything else. While the white-washing claim from the initial trailer could hold merit prior to finding out about the character, this really makes a lot more sense.

Are you looking forward to checking out ‘The Great Wall’ when it drops next year? Share your thoughts below!

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.

‘The Great Wall’ starring Matt Damon, Jing Tian, Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, and Andy Lau hits theaters on February 17, 2017.

Source: Cinema Blend.

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Stuart Conover is an author, blogger, and all around geek. When not busy being a father and husband he tries to spend as much time as possible immersed in comic books, science fiction, and horror! Would you like to know more? Follow him on Twitter!