Zhang dresses different regiments of the Nameless Order in wildly exaggerated armor, arranging them in vibrant swatches of color. The film’s extensive battle sequences are a showcase for director Zhang Yimou’s genius at marshalling an army of extras in beautifully coordinated movement (a skill he exhibited prominently in his opening ceremonies for the 2008 Beijing Olympics). Setting aside William’s naturally selfish and cynical inclinations, a pretty, English-speaking officer, Commander Lin (Jing Tian), convinces him to join the Nameless Order in fending off the attacking Taotie. It’s there that he finds the Nameless Order, a special army trained to fight creatures-known as Taotie-with catapults, cannons, arrows, and spears. William is a mercenary searching for gunpowder along China’s Silk Road, who takes refuge from a horde of dragon-like monsters in one of the fortified turrets of the Great Wall. Casting Damon in the starring role has been criticized as an attempt to graft a white-savior narrative onto a distinctly Asian story, but the actor’s presence is central to the film’s cross-cultural ambitions, both because a Hollywood superstar like Damon is necessary to sell The Great Wall to the masses in America and because his character serves as a symbol of Sino-American cooperation. The Great Wall’s narrative essentially allegorizes its own production scheme, telling a tale of a Westerner, William (Matt Damon), who, after looking to make bank in China by stealing its resources, forgoes his own greed and learns to work with the locals to the mutual benefit of all parties.

This image neatly captures the financial background of this largest-ever co-production between the United States and China: an American film studio, facing declining revenue at home, looking toward the most populous nation on the planet to tap into the enormous market potential of its 1.3 billion citizens. In a nod to a popular bit of apocrypha about the Great Wall of China, that it’s the only man-made structure visible from space, this vivacious but uneven blockbuster opens with the camera zooming toward the Universal Pictures logo until the venerable globe turns into an aerial shot of the Middle Kingdom, with its legendary landmark clearly visible below.

The great wall movie plot