Eastern and Western? Humans and Demons? A grand battlefield at the edge of civilization, where myth meets the only manmade landmark visible from outer space? It's a masterful mix! It's also much less of a cultural clash than similar hybrids like The Last Samurai. That some of the Chinese even speak English greatly helps bridge that divide, even if it also seems like a simple shortcut in telling their story.

Matt Damon is great as always, Tian Jing is beautiful (and great, just saying), Andy Lau was a face I should've recognized, and both Willem Dafoe and Pedro Pascal fit in perfectly as the other two only Westerners in the movie. What I thought would be a pretty low-class film turned out to be... amazing! It's about the Great Wall of China, and an army under the lead of the Order With No Name, defending humanity against a threat they don't even know.

There's a message too. Something about greed. It ends with melancholy, even though it went as well as it could possibly go. Heroic, majestic, and POWERFUL. Love the action. Love the discipline. Love the detail. Love the explosions, costumes, creativity and chaos. And how Dafoe's eyes are finally opened in the end. That's the kind of movie this was! Love it.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle