The Great Wall 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray Review
Brad Sturdivant
June 3rd, 2017
Matt Damon’s casting in Yimou Zhang’s THE GREAT WALL drew all the attention from the Chinese action adventure. Without seeing the film, people seemed very passionate about whether or not a white, American actor should have been cast in an Asian film. I was indifferent in the beginning, but after seeing the film, it’s almost laughable how people blew the casting out of proportion. THE GREAT WALL is another in a long line of epic, fantasy, action movies set in Asia. Damon’s inclusion doesn’t change anything about the film. If anything, he might have brought people in that wouldn’t see a movie like this without him.
Damon plays William, a European mercenary on the search for the mysterious “black powder” (gun powder) that is rumored to be available in China. He’s joined on his search by his friend Tovar (Pascal – Prince Oberyn lives!). William and Tovar make their way to the The Great Wall of China, where they meet Commander Lin Mae (Jing). At first, they’re met with skepticism, but after a battle with beasts called Taoties, the duo prove their worth and earn a spot in the army. But as William grows closer to Commander Mae, his priorities change and he eventually must make a decision to either flee with the black powder or stay and help save China from the Taoties.
For American audiences, all we really knew about THE GREAT WALL is that it featured Matt Damon in China. And although Damon is clearly an A-list star and probably brought millions of patrons into the theater to see THE GREAT WALL, he might be the film’s biggest problem. Or to be more specific, his accents are the biggest problem. In some scenes, he sounds Scottish, others he’s Irish and others he gives up and goes full on Boston. This is his ROBIN HOOD: PRINCE OF THIEVES in that his accents come and go depending on the scene. Other than his accents, he did fine with what he had, but he was upstaged by Pedro Pascal, who shot to notoriety in HBO’s ‘Game of Thrones’ as Prince Oberyn. He plays the same character here, but it works very well.
Director Yimou Zhang directed the beautiful looking HERO with Jet Li and then mixed East and West with THE FLOWERS OF WAR starring Christian Bale. So he was a good choice for THE GREAT WALL as he more than justifies the casting of an A-list American actor and creates a beautiful looking film with rich colors and settings but still manages to tone back the supernatural elements. At least as far as a film about alien beasts attacking ancient China can manage. But the action scenes are fun and great to look at while the cast gives you enough to make them intense. These kind of films are pretty common in Asian cinema (usually starring Jet Li) and if you’ve enjoyed movies like FLYING SWORDS OF DRAGON GATE or DRAGON BLADE, this is a clear step up.
We’ve seen movies like THE GREAT WALL before, but it’s entertaining enough to make it worthwhile. THE GREAT WALL is a surprisingly fun film and if you get bored, you can play a game of “guess the accent” with Matt Damon.
4K ULTRA HD BLU-RAY REVIEW
Video: I’ve made the joke that the worse the movie, the better it looks on 4K and that holds true here (to be fair, I enjoyed THE GREAT WALL). But THE GREAT WALL is a beautiful looking 4K UHD, amplifying everything that looks great in the Blu-ray. The various colors in the uniforms of the soldiers pop a little more thanks to the HDR, the night scenes look much clearer thanks to the 4K and the battle scenes seem smoother and more detailed. I was excited to see what the new format could do for a Yimou Zhang film and I was not disappointed. This is a great looking disc.
Audio: William’s arrows flying by are reason enough to praise the Dolby Atmos track, but it sounds great at all times. This is an impressive audio track to go along with the great video.
This title was reviewed using a Samsung UBD-K8500 with a Sony XBR75X850C TV.
The 4K UHD does not contain any exclusive features, but it does include a Blu-ray of the film, which includes the following special features:
Deleted and Extended Scenes (6:50): Eight brief scenes are included and most of them feel like extended scenes rather than deleted, but none of them make much of an impact.
Featurettes (25:10): Seven very short featurettes are included and together, they make up a typical making-of featurette. Matt Damon gets about six minutes to himself and the rest center on the settings, locations and stunts.
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