#Tokek free#

This is ZhangвЂ™s first feature since the 2014 Coming Home, an unapologetic and moving melodrama, set in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution, that went virtually unseen by American audiences. But this is one place where director Zhang gets to show off his gift for mingling color, pageantry and action. ItвЂ™s dangerous work, and some of the Crane Corps end up eaten, eaten, eaten.

Secured by cables, they swoop down from a formation of prongs atop the wall and stab at the green gilled reptilian thingies until theyвЂ™re dead, dead, dead.

Technically, I guess youвЂ™d call them well handled, but thereвЂ™s little magic in them, save for a sequence involving a troupe of women warriors known as the Crane Corps, lithe, caped Busby Berkeley-style acrobats sporting molded blue falcon-head helmets. The action scenes in The Great Wall-most of them involving brave soldiers, and William, going against those Tao Tei hordes in one way or another-are ambitious and massive. He doesnвЂ™t stand a chance with her, though his odds increase slightly once heвЂ™s sheared off that facial forest. William also makes moo-moo eyes at the bold, comely Commander Lin (Tian Jing, soon to be seen in Kong: Skull Island).

#Tokek free#

Tovar and William are taken prisoner, but manage to break free just in time to kill a few of the fearsome reptilian thingies, who pour forth in a thick, steady stream. There, Strategist Wang (played by the wonderful Hong Kong actor Andy Lau, radiating a distinctive quality you could call impish dignity) explains that the gnarly hand theyвЂ™ve been toting around belongs to one of the Tao Tei, crazy-violent beasts who, if left unchecked, will destroy all of China-and as it turns out, theyвЂ™re headed, by the millions, for the wall just at that moment. As the creature runs off to die, it leaves behind its massive chopped-off claw, which William tucks in his bag, вЂњso someone can tell me what I just killed.вЂќД«efore long, William and Tovar are captured by Chinese soldiers and brought back to Great Wall HQ for questioning. (Damon is almost recognizable at this point: ItвЂ™s hard to believe thereвЂ™s a star under all that fur.) One night, the camp heвЂ™s set up with his sidekick Tovar (Pedro Pascal) and a few other blokes is attacked by a vicious, unseen beastie, which William kills.

Obviously, heвЂ™s been there a long time, from the looks of his rangy, Middle Earth-style facial hair. Damon stars as William, a European mercenary doing something-or-other in or near China.