Zhang Yimou’s fantasy movie The Great Wall with Matt Damon – a great fail for the China-US co-production model

The most expensive film ever shot on Chinese soil, it lost US$75 million worldwide, was panned by critics and accused of propagating the white saviour myth

This was a culture clash of the worst kind – rather than an exciting blend of East meets West, it looks more like two different films shoved violently together

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Matt Damon in a scene from The Great Wall. The most expensive film ever shot on Chinese soil, it lost US$75 million worldwide.

Published: 4:15am, 4 Jun 2021Updated: 8:06pm, 5 Jun 2021

Like the structure from which it takes its name, the 2016 Chinese-American co-production The Great Wall seemed too big to fail. Directed by Zhang Yimou ( Hero ) and starring Matt Damon, Andy Lau Tak-wah and Jing Tian, it was the most expensive film ever shot on Chinese soil, an action-packed epic designed to echo the success of large-canvas fantasies like Lord of the Rings.

What could possibly go wrong? In short, everything.

The film lost US$75 million worldwide, was panned by critics and accused of propagating the white saviour myth, and set Chinese-American cinematic relations back by years. Even its defenders damned it with faint praise, with AV Club critic Ignatiy Vishnevetsky calling it “stupidly awesome”, although perhaps he meant those words the other way round.

Set in the 11th century, the film follows European mercenaries William Garin (a miscast Damon) and Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal, later to star in The Mandalorian) across China on a mission for gunpowder. After being attacked by the Tao Tai, a species of ancient reptilian aliens, they stumble – yes, really – upon the wall, a structure so huge it was once thought to be visible from space.

Here they’re captured by the Nameless Order, an army lead by Commander Lin (Jing) and tasked with protecting the country from the Tao Tai. Mostly this involves endless battle scenes that are high on colour but low on coherence, with the aliens resembling a herd of green wildebeest swarming unconvincingly across the screen.