Question for people who saw The Great Wall

[happyninja42]

Ok so, every time I see a trailer for that movie, the premise of it, and the various colors of the different clans, it REALLY feels like someone took the premise of that game/book series Legend of Five Rings.

I mean, the group that are painted in blue are called the Cranes for pete's sake. So, anyone who is familiar with that, and saw the movie, would you say they pulled from the concepts for the movie?

Like, the group that lives on the wall, are they called the Crab clan?

 

[Story]

Ok so, every time I see a trailer for that movie, the premise of it, and the various colors of the different clans, it REALLY feels like someone took the premise of that game/book series Legend of Five Rings.

I mean, the group that are painted in blue are called the Cranes for pete's sake. So, anyone who is familiar with that, and saw the movie, would you say they pulled from the concepts for the movie?

Like, the group that lives on the wall, are they called the Crab clan?

I'm not completely familiar with Legend of the Five Rings but I can tell you about The Great Wall since I saw it the other day and it's fresh in my mind.
The focus is on Matt Damon's character on a quest for black powder and running into a foreign culture who is are trying to defeat a pack of aliens. The Crane Unit that were mentioned in the trailer were the most defined military unit both because it used women on the frontlines (which impressed Matt Damon's western character) and that fact that secondary protagonist of the movie played by Jing Tian also commanded them. They are the ones that get the most screen time.

The other techno colored men are also specialty units each with their own general. I really want to say they were themed loosely by marshal art styles or the Chinese Zodiac but I'm not sure. The only ones we really see are the Red Bird (Rooster?) units (arrows and bows), the Orange Tiger Units (ballistics and traps among the walls), and the Purple Ram? Units (defense and shields, think Spartans). The Gray Wolf General is the commander of the whole army.

No Crab Unit at least from what I saw.

I hope that at least partly answered your question.

Edit: Grammatical errors corrected.

 

[happyninja42]

Yeah that answers my question, sadly not the answer I was hoping for, but oh well. Thanks.

 

[DrownedAmmet]

Ok so, every time I see a trailer for that movie, the premise of it, and the various colors of the different clans, it REALLY feels like someone took the premise of that game/book series Legend of Five Rings.

I mean, the group that are painted in blue are called the Cranes for pete's sake. So, anyone who is familiar with that, and saw the movie, would you say they pulled from the concepts for the movie?

Like, the group that lives on the wall, are they called the Crab clan?

I'm not completely familiar with Legend of the Five Rings but I can tell you about The Great Wall since I saw it the other day and it's fresh in my mind.
The focus is on Matt Damon's character on a quest for black powder and running into a foreign culture who is are trying to defeat a pack of aliens. The Crane Unit that were mentioned in the trailer were the most defined military unit both because it used women on the frontlines (which impressed Matt Damon's western character) and that fact that secondary protagonist of the movie played by Jing Tian also commanded them. They are the ones that get the most screen time.

The other techno colored men are also specialty units each with their own general. I really want to say they were themed loosely by marshal art styles or the Chinese Zodiac but I'm not sure. The only ones we really see are the Red Bird (Rooster?) units (arrows and bows), the Orange Tiger Units (ballistics and traps among the walls), and the Purple Ram? Units (defense and shields, think Spartans). The Gray Wolf General is the commander of the whole army.

No Crab Unit at least from what I saw.

I hope that at least partly answered your question.

Edit: Grammatical errors corrected.

I just saw it last night and it was a kick ass movie.
What were the people that rappelled down with axes, and the ones that had the giant knives that came out of the wall? Were they the Tigers?

 

[Story]

I just saw it last night and it was a kick ass movie.
What were the people that rappelled down with axes, and the ones that had the giant knives that came out of the wall? Were they the Tigers?

Yeah I really enjoyed the movie too! It was very entertaining. Yes those were what I called the "Tiger" or Orange Unit, they were my favorites because of how creative they were. It's really hard to tell what some of the animal themes were and if they meant something in particular. One thing I know for sure though is that they were cool.

 

[pookie101]

im thrown people are actually liking it. it looked really dodgy from the trailers.. i might have to check it out

 

[Guffe]

What the hell!! The women have full on body armor and not chainmail bikinis!!! NNNNNOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!! //jk

Same as above poster, people seem to like it, seems like something maybe worth checking out.

 

[sageoftruth]

I'd probably enjoy it. I'm not sure about my roommate. How is the cinematography? Too many cuts and the camera jumping around really put him off. Was it easy to see what was going on action-wise most of the time?

 

[Story]

I'd probably enjoy it. I'm not sure about my roommate. How is the cinematography? Too many cuts and the camera jumping around really put him off. Was it easy to see what was going on action-wise most of the time?

Ehh...it can be a mixed bag to be honest. There was an earlier scene where they fight one of the monsters that was very confusingly cut on purpose to make it mysterious, I thought it was more fustrating than clever. Some scenes were cut between two characters story lines that might make the action difficult to follow.

No I'd say what really sold me on the movie was its production design and art direction, which was gorgeous.

 

[Nickolai77]

im thrown people are actually liking it. it looked really dodgy from the trailers.. i might have to check it out

Same here, the ads made it look about as good as a transformer movie. In Rotton Tomatoes it's got 35%/55% approval from critics and audiences, which I guess is better than I expected. Still, I'm sceptical that seeing it in cinema will be worth the money so I'm not making any plans to see it.


If the movie is successful though it shows that Chinese films can be successful in the West if they give leading roles to well known Western actors. We may start getting more Chinese films on cinema screens in the future, if this is successful.

 

[McElroy]

If the movie is successful though it shows that Chinese films can be successful in the West if they give leading roles to well known Western actors. We may start getting more Chinese films on cinema screens in the future, if this is successful.

People might think so, but it's already been done over ten years ago by the same director with Hero and House of Flying Daggers. This one just looks like a CGI-fest with the added bonus of Jing Tian's cute face.

 

[Pyrian]

I enjoyed it, but the box office returns look pretty bad.

 

[WindKnight]

im thrown people are actually liking it. it looked really dodgy from the trailers.. i might have to check it out

Same here, the ads made it look about as good as a transformer movie. In Rotton Tomatoes it's got 35%/55% approval from critics and audiences, which I guess is better than I expected. Still, I'm sceptical that seeing it in cinema will be worth the money so I'm not making any plans to see it.


If the movie is successful though it shows that Chinese films can be successful in the West if they give leading roles to well known Western actors. We may start getting more Chinese films on cinema screens in the future, if this is successful.

Not seen it, but heard that Damon spends most of of the movie awed by the Great Chinese Superiority, and his character development is to stop being a greedy selfish westerner, and embrace superior Chinese teamwork.

Kinda like the Chinese are giving western audiences a spoonful of Chinese superiority and hiding it with a dash White Saviour

 

[happyninja42]

im thrown people are actually liking it. it looked really dodgy from the trailers.. i might have to check it out

Well, the fact that it looks bad, doesn't mean it's not enjoyable. I mean, one of the worst movies in history, The Rocky Horror Show is considered a beloved classic, and people all over the world regularly go to see it and revel in it's awfulness, sometimes in full costume.

I fully acknowledge that people might not find it to be a good movie, but that doesn't mean people can't have fun watching it.

Kinda like the Chinese are giving western audiences a spoonful of Chinese superiority and hiding it with a dash White Saviour

From what I've heard, that's not what his character is there for. He's just the outsider/audience insert character really, to justify exposition. The White Savior aspect is very much not what he does in the movie, at least from what I've heard. He's, like you said, there to be awed by the Chinese awesomeness.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

im thrown people are actually liking it. it looked really dodgy from the trailers.. i might have to check it out

I thought it was mediocre at best, a 5/10. You get some good sweeping battle scenes and nothing more. The story Is worthless, the acting is weirdly stiff, there's a lot of dumb stereotyping and the aliens look like Borderlands skags.

 

[PsychicTaco115]

I'm a sucker for last line of defense movies so color me interested

 

[happyninja42]

I'm a sucker for last line of defense movies so color me interested

Yeah I tend to enjoy those too. I've always had a thing for stories of defiant defenders fighting off unending waves of baddies, kind of story.

 

[Kolby Jack]

I enjoyed it, but the box office returns look pretty bad.

Probably because they marketed like a Chinese "The Last Samurai" with lizard monsters. At least every trailer I've seen confused the hell out of me more than anything.