William and Tovar assume theyвЂ™ll be executed but are able to prove to General Shao (Hanyu Zhang) who commands 100,000 soldiers, Strategist Wang (Andy Lau Tak-wah) and Commander Lin (Jing Tian) of the so-called Nameless Order that theyвЂ™re handy to have around in a fight. Riding away from tribal enemies the next day only to hit a major obstacle, William and Tovar are obliged to surrender to the resplendent folks atop a fortified wall. In camp by night he slays something that bleeds green and leaves only its sinister severed claw behind before conveniently plunging into an abyss. William decides to keep a hunk of magnetic stone even though itвЂ™s heavy and heвЂ™s on horseback. With money and food his lone motivations, William has fought far and wide, including in Spain where he presumably linked forces with his closest brother-in-arms Tovar (Chile-born actor Pedro Pascal).Д®xpedient strokes establish several essential components of the story.

ItвЂ™s never established where, exactly, heвЂ™s from, but a few syllables that could be a vague medieval Irish accent surface at times. The Great Wall took 1,700 years to build the film seems likely to turn a profit on a reported $150 million budget a good deal faster than that.ДЄ peerless archer, William (Damon) is among the last of a band of men who set out to find gunpowder in the Far East. Viewers are in good hands - if theyвЂ™re not too demanding - as Zhang Yimou puts the easily distinguishable characters through their paces.ДЄlready attracting viewers in Asia since its Dec 16 release - although not in sufficiently dazzling numbers for some observers - the U.S.-China co-production has just topped the box office in the Middle East and opens in France on Jan 11 and in the US and UK on Feb 17. ThereвЂ™s rarely a dull moment in this ambitious spectacle about a 12th century European mercenary in search of the fabled explosive вЂњblack powder that turns air into fire.вЂќ Arriving just in time for a long-dreaded siege, our protagonist - played by Matt Damon - ends up learning that trust is good, the Chinese invented tactical bungee jumping and women can be peerless military tacticians. West meets East to entertaining effect in Zhang YimouвЂ™s The Great Wall, which posits that fortuitous foreigners can be a big help and that ChinaвЂ™s ancient Great Wall was really erected to keep excellent special effects critters with sharp teeth and nasty dispositions from reaching the nationвЂ™s capital.

The great wall movie