3-minute preview: 'The Great Wall'

MATT Damon leads an international cast in The Great Wall, an action epic from a master of modern martial arts films.
Who's in it and what's it about?
Matt Damon leads a multinational cast in this Chinese-made epic about a fictional reason for the building of The Great Wall of China. What was that reason?
Monsters. Big ones.
Damon's William Garin and fellow mercenary Pero Tovar (Chilean-American Pedro Pascal of The Adjustment Bureau, Game of Thrones) are the only ones of their group to have survived a surprise encounter with one of these beasts.
After capture by Chinese forces, Garin and Tovar are introduced to a band of elite soldiers – including those played by Andy Lau (Shaolin Soccer, Infernal Affairs), Tian Jing (Pacific Rim: Uprising) and Hanyu Zhang and Eddie Peng (Operation Mekong) – plus a fellow foreigner in Ballard (Willem Dafoe.)
Then they learn of the monsters' true nature and Chinese efforts to deal with them.

Who's behind it?
The result of a US$150 million (RM667 million) collaboration between Wanda Group's Legendary Pictures, Le Vision Pictures, China Film Group, and US partner Atlas Entertainment, The Great Wall is directed by Zhang Yimou of martial arts films Hero and House of Flying Daggers, as well as a host of dramas including The Flowers of War, The Road Home and a Berlin Film Festival-winning debut, Red Sorghum.
He directed from a script credited to Max Brooks (author of World War Z), Marshall Herskovitz (writer producer on The Last Samurai, Blood Diamond) and Edward Zwick (director of The Last Samurai and Blood Diamond)
Is it any good?
Middling reviews haven't stopped The Great Wall from pulling in US$216m worldwide in advance of a US opening: a 48/100 weighted average on Metacritic, and a 44% approval rating based on a 5.8/10 average from Rotten Tomatoes.
Over 11,000 IMDb users have contributed to a 6.3/10 site average.
When's it out?
Released mid-December 2016 for Chinese audiences and rolling out internationally since, there are still a good number of major theatrical markets yet to have The Great Wall open.
Those territories include Australia and Russia (Feb 16), the USA, Canada, the UK and Ireland (Feb 17), Brazil, Argentina and Italy (Feb 23) and Japan from April 14. — AFP Relaxnews
Watch the trailer here: