The Great Wall
Universal Pictures | Release Date: February 17, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
42
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 40 Critic Reviews
Positive:
7
Mixed:
21
Negative:
12
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
75
RogerEbert.comSimon AbramsFeb 17, 2017
The Great Wall has significant problems — namely with Damon and sidekick Pedro Pascal's lack of bromantic chemistry — but chief among its rewards is its ability to marry its Eastern and Western sensibilities. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriFeb 17, 2017
As pure spectacle, The Great Wall is absolutely dazzling. It may be a studio release, but the constant sense of invention, the go-for-broke intricacy of its battle scenes, feels very much of a piece with Chinese action fantasy flicks. Read full review
70
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinFeb 17, 2017
The absurdity is what makes it such a hoot-and-a-half. Read full review
70
Screen DailyLisa NesselsonJan 10, 2017
Viewers are in good hands — if they’re not too demanding — as Zhang Yimou puts the easily distinguishable characters through their paces. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubIgnatiy VishnevetskyFeb 16, 2017
If The Great Wall is too spotty to really satisfy as the old-fashioned medieval adventure it sometimes aspires to be, it is consistently engaging as an almost abstract exercise in visual sumptuousness. Read full review
63
The Seattle TimesKatie WalshFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall defies any expectations — it’s absolutely bonkers wild. Read full review
63
Slant MagazineKeith WatsonFeb 16, 2017
This is an often beautiful film, unmistakably the work of a great director but also a clearly compromised one. Read full review
60
TheWrapAlonso DuraldeFeb 17, 2017
If you calibrate your expectations to “monster movie for eight-year-olds,” you may find some fun in this energetic and blissfully brief (a mere 103 minutes!) tale of the Chinese army battling alien beasties in the Song Dynasty era. Read full review
60
Time Out LondonTom HuddlestonFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall is not exactly a good movie – but it’s a pretty enjoyable one. Read full review
60
The GuardianHelen RoxburghJan 6, 2017
It won’t be remembered as Zhang’s best film, but the director’s artistic touch is on display in his long panoramic sweeps and artful use of colour. Simultaneously futuristic and historic, the visual spectacle carries the film. Read full review
58
MTV NewsAmy NicholsonFeb 17, 2017
The Great Wall doesn't have the lunacy that made last year's Gods of Egypt a hoot. Zhang can't kick his craving for respectability, even if he's making a movie that flips the middle finger at historicity. Read full review
58
The Film StageConor O'DonnellFeb 17, 2017
The Hollywood-infused epic fantasy plays like Warcraft meets The Last Samurai by way of Zack Snyder — but shockingly better than all that sounds. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerFeb 17, 2017
There is barely a whiff of genuine transcendence in this grand-scale extravaganza. The special effects are courtesy of Industrial Light and Magic, but the magic here is largely industrial. Read full review
58
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall looks like it could be a really amazing video game. Alas, it’s a movie, and kind of a brick. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliFeb 20, 2017
12 year old boys will love the result. That’s not a good sign for anyone who has passed beyond their teenage years. Read full review
50
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallFeb 17, 2017
The Great Wall is a so-so movie with eye-popping images. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Kate TaylorFeb 16, 2017
Zhang’s apocalyptic view of the beasts from above as they swarm over the palace like rats may be a chilling metaphor for what awaits us all if we don’t achieve effective international co-operation – but it is also the too-hasty climax to an underdeveloped martial-arts/monster-movie mashup. East and West are going to have to do better than this. Read full review
50
We Got This CoveredMatt DonatoFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall is like the disaster of 47 Ronin all over again, except the action is a bit more fantastically barbaric and Damon isn't all that bad himself. Read full review
50
ConsequenceClint WorthingtonFeb 16, 2017
For Yimou’s colors alone, and one particularly striking set piece set in a kaleidoscopic stained-glass tower, The Great Wall may be worth the price of admission. Read full review
50
New York PostKyle SmithFeb 16, 2017
It may be a second-rate “Lord of the Rings,” but at least it doesn’t overstay its welcome. Read full review
50
VarietyMaggie LeeDec 15, 2016
Director Zhang Yimou capably gives period fantasy-action The Great Wall the look and feel of a Hollywood blockbuster, but his signature visual dazzle, his gift for depicting delicate relationships and throbbing passions are trampled by dead-serious epic aspirations. Read full review
42
The PlaylistKimber MyersFeb 16, 2017
Other than the enjoyably silly banter between Damon and Pascal, there are few moments that endear you to anyone on screen. The movie’s tone veers from bombastic to goofy with speed but little grace. Read full review
40
Arizona RepublicBarbara VanDenburghFeb 17, 2017
Its real accomplishment is that, with so much money behind it and a true visionary at the helm, it manages to feel so dated. Read full review
40
Total FilmJamie GrahamFeb 17, 2017
A murky mishmash of a movie, with the lightest smattering of glorious moments. Read full review
40
The New York TimesManohla DargisFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall flirts with romance and bleats out a little propagandistic blather about the benefits of bilateral action, but the focus throughout remains on multitudes of shifting, surging bodies — human and beast, digital and not — that, as they ebb and flow, resemble a Chinese military pageant and a lavish Busby Berkeley number. Read full review
40
TimeStephanie ZacharekFeb 16, 2017
It sure is handsome-looking, throwing off a majestic gleam. But that’s not the same as possessing actual majesty. There’s barely a minute when The Great Wall doesn’t veer into the trying-too-hard zone, and to watch all that striving is simply exhausting. Read full review
40
EmpireJamie FullertonFeb 13, 2017
There are plenty of fun CGI monster-skewering scenes, but a clunky plot, rigid script and equally stiff acting make this a crumbling disappointment, if not quite a disaster. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterClarence TsuiDec 15, 2016
The characters are ciphers, the narrative is dull and even the sights and sounds become numbingly bombastic after a while. Read full review
38
Rolling StonePeter TraversFeb 17, 2017
It plays like like a video game in which the goal is to kill as many of these green-blooded monsters as you can before time's up. It's fun for about 10 minutes, and then the tedium seeps in. Read full review
38
USA TodayBrian TruittFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall crumbles mainly because of its wholly predictable plot, wretched dialogue and dud of a filmgoing experience from noted director Zhang Yimou (House of Flying Daggers). Read full review
38
Movie NationRoger MooreFeb 16, 2017
We will see worse movies this year than The Great Wall. But we won’t one more cynical. Read full review
38
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperFeb 16, 2017
The Great Wall is so fantastically misguided and so wonderfully bad, I could see some coming for the action and staying for the camp laughs. Read full review
30
Austin ChronicleSteve DavisFeb 22, 2017
Whether it’s a case of miscasting is unclear, but without a willing hero to anchor this already dubious movie from start to finish, The Great Wall hits a brick wall. Read full review
30
ScreenCrushE. Oliver WhitneyFeb 17, 2017
You can try to enjoy The Great Wall as a delightfully crappy blockbuster, but when you remember this is a Zhang Yimou film, it’s just a disappointment. Read full review
30
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranFeb 16, 2017
If ever a film was made with more money than sense, this is it. Read full review
25
IndieWireEric KohnFeb 16, 2017
A bad movie by any culture’s standards, The Great Wall mostly goes to show that if the future of the business lies with Hollywood -China alliances, it doesn’t bode well for either side. Read full review
25
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleFeb 16, 2017
The narrative is clumsy, and the monster scenes are ridiculous, but not ridiculous enough to be funny, just ridiculous enough to be boring. Read full review
20
New Orleans Times-PicayuneMike ScottFeb 17, 2017
While it shows fleeting moments of promise, there's precious little great about The Great Wall. Instead, it should be called "The Ridiculous Wall." Read full review
20
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternFeb 16, 2017
The computer-generated monsters, like the film as a whole, are numbingly repetitive, and devoid of any power to move, scare or stir us. Read full review
20
The TelegraphRobbie CollinFeb 16, 2017
From blundered opening to risible conclusion, it’s a wall-to-wall fiasco. Read full review
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