150 million fantasy adventure that caused a huge controversy

While the fresh episodes of Bridgerton are currently topping Netflix’s series charts, a fantasy adventure that is a little older is at number 1 in the film section: The Great Wall from 2016 is currently the most watched film on Netflix. It did well at the box office $150 million spectacle a colossal defeat and sparked a controversy surrounding lead actor Matt Damon.

Fantasy adventure storms the Netflix charts: The Great Wall came into the discussion

In The Great Wall, Matt Damon becomes the Irish mercenary William Garin to China in the early 11th century lost. There he becomes involved in the fight against a monstrous threat at the Great Wall of China. Even though the film tells a fictional fantasy story, the casting of the Hollywood star, who was plunged into depression by the production, sparked a huge controversy even before its release.

The fact that a white, European character leads an East Asian story led to a lot of noise in advance Whitewashing allegations to the production, as reported by The Guardian, among others. There was also great concern that the film would be on the White Savior Trope falls back and the conflicts of a foreign culture are ultimately resolved by a white person who is foreign to that culture.

You can watch the trailer for The Great Wall here:

The critics were not very impressed when it was released in 2016. According to Box Office Mojo, the Chinese-American co-production grossed $334 million at the box office worldwide and is therefore considered a flop with a budget of $150 million. The Great Wall received an average rating of 5.5 out of 10 from the Moviepilot community.

Even though Matt Damon’s hero actually saves the day (and the world) in the end, fantasy fans will get their fill of plenty of visually stunning fights and battles over a running time of over 100 minutes. These were staged by director legend Yimou Zhang, who is behind breathtaking works such as Hero, House of the Flying Daggers and Shadow. You can currently stream The Great Wall on Netflix and with a subscription to Amazon Prime Video.

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