Matt Damon, The Great Wall

Trailer Time: The Great Wall Teaser #1 (2017) *What IS This?*

What….is….this?  Matt Damon is not an action star, that’s one of the things that makes the Bourne movies work is that he looks like he could be a data analyst from Iowa.  For awhile, I thought the trailer was a gag leading up to a poke at Donald Trump’s proposed wall for the Mexican border, then I realized it was a real movie and spent the rest of the time just kind of staring at it, mouth agape.  The teaser was just released and EW has released five pictures from the film for its upcoming issue.


The Great Wall

“The film takes place about 1,000 years ago. At its core, it is a period piece and an action film. The fantasy element does play a major role because of the monsters. But, what makes our film unique is that these are ancient Chinese monsters. Even though it’s a fantasy movie, we filmed it in a very realistic way. We want it to feel like the events actually happened. Other than the monster, all aspects of this film are backed by either scientific or historical research.”

The Great Wall is scheduled for a February 17, 2017 release.  That puts it head-to-head with The Dark Tower adaptation.  I’m just going out on a limb and saying I’m probably going to go see that instead.
The Great Wall

6 thoughts on “Trailer Time: The Great Wall Teaser #1 (2017) *What IS This?*”

  1. Whoever gave this the green light must have been in an altered state, but is there something wrong with me that I want to see it?

    I’ve been waiting for The Dark Tower since I was a kid though, so yeah, I’m going to prioritize Roland and Walter (though I hope they fix the problems with the last three books, which I thought were letdowns, and prevented the overall epic from being King’s greatest work).

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    1. I don’t know that they’re doing a straight adaptation, but I hope I’m wrong. It just needs to open exactly as the first bo ok opens. The most compelling part of the whole saga is Roland’s origin from Book IV. Marvel’s been exploring that for years and from expanding on his origin, they’ve moved through the first two books and are now on the third. They’re better than the novels. I would highly recommend them. This….they must have paid Matt Damon a metric ton of cash to get him to do this.


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      1. I’ve been following the comics, and they’re incredible. The artwork comes very close to what I imagined when I read the novels, and that’s something, because usually the reality doesn’t live up to the dream.

        I agree that the backstory is better than the main plot, and book IV is indeed the best. My guess (and it’s only a guess) is that King worked out the backstory before he embarked on the actual writing of the saga, and had a very disciplined beginning, middle, and end in mind, and that’s why the history parts are so good. The main part of the saga he made up as he went along, which is his usual method.


        King went wrong when he tried to unite all his other books under one mythology. He also went wrong by writing himself into the saga. I really hope the movies jettison all that. The movie does need to open like the first book opens. It also needs to open like the last book ends.

        This adaptation has the potential to be better than the books.


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      2. Yeah, this Great Wall movie does not seem to be a judicious undertaking, and it’s a bad sign that they’re just telling us about it now.

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      3. It cost $135 million dollars and was the most expensive movie ever filmed in China. They’ll be counting on China to cover the cost of the film.


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