The Great Wall Review: 6 Ups & 5 Downs

4. The Monsters Are Incredibly Generic

The Great Wall Taotie
Universal Pictures

The crux of the movie sees Matt Damon's William Garin teaming up with a Chinese military squad to help fend off an army of hideous monsters known as the Taotie, who want to ravage not only China but the entire world.

Somewhat unsurprisingly, the beasts are probably the lamest part of the movie, highly unimaginative beasts rendered with fairly unremarkable CGI and boasting character designs that wouldn't look out of place in just about any mediocre mid-2000s video game.

Ultimately they're just fodder around which the film's luxurious action sequences are built, and that's fine, but it's a shame they didn't amount to something just a little more interesting.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.