Film Preview: The Great Wall (2017)

Page Revisions:

(July 31, 2016) Original
(October 16, 2016) New Trailer (#2) / New Posters (#2-#5)
(February 12, 2017) New Posters (#5-#21)

Release Date:

February 17, 2017

Synopsis:

From IMDb: “A mystery centered around the construction of the Great Wall of China.”

Poster Rating: C / B+ (13) / B- / C / C- / C- / C- / B / C-

SEE ALL POSTERS BELOW
Review: (#1) What better way to sell a film starring Matt Damon than to put him on the poster. Unfortunately, the background details are inconsequential and the explosions look far too fake.

(#2-#5) This series of character posters are strikingly detailed, rich in warm colors and are distinctive enough from one another to merit appreciation. They’d look quite good hanging on a wall. They lower half of the designs aren’t particular memorable and the title formatting and layout aren’t that interesting, but these are solid efforts.

(#6-#14) Nine more character posters. Seem my commentary on designs #2 through #5 for my original thoughts. I’m just glad that the designers tried hard to keep a unifying theme while establishing some manner of variety. (#15) This is the most comprehensive design, featuring most of the players even if Matt Damon is extremely prominent. There’s another problem with that, though. Damon looks more like Chris Hemsworth’s Thor in this design than he looks like himself.

(#16) An action design with decent background detail, but one that isn’t otherwise exciting. (#17) It’s nice to see designs with other actors on display and this one tries hard to accentuate that, but it doesn’t look different enough from prior designs to merit a better rating. (#18) The intense look on Damon’s face looks more like he’s concerned about his placement within the marketing in general and this poster in specific, rather than he’s concentrating on battle.

(#19) Another action poster, but the background details here are unimpressive, as is the work done on inserting all of the actors into the poster. (#20) I’m not certain when the desire to create such obviously artistic efforts for movie posters, but I applaud the trend. Too bad more films don’t offer these kind of designs. (#21) Like the design for #19, the action elements aren’t particularly exciting and the cheapness of the accompanying design elements makes it distracting rather than exciting.

Trailer Rating: B / B

SEE ALL TRAILERS BELOW
Review: (#1) The trailer ratchets up the suspense, refusing to give away too many details about the monsters being kept out by the Great Wall. It also doesn’t sufficiently explain why Matt Damon is even in the film other than to sell it.

(#2) While it doesn’t do much to establish that this is an ensemble piece, this trailer is much more inclusive in terms of other prominent cast members. That we finally get to see what’s attacking the wall and come to understand where we are at with the film’s premise, it all looks just a bit more interesting.

Oscar Prospects:

Zhang Yimou’s films are no stranger to the Oscars, but only in creative categories. That said, I don’t see a film that has already been so divisive being a contender outside of the techs.