Directed by Yimou Zhang (House of Flying Daggers; Curse of the Golden Flower; Hero) and starring Matt Damon (Invictus; The Martian; Good Will Hunting; Ocean's Twelve; Behind the Candelabra; the Jason Bourne series...), Pedro Pascal (The Adjustment Bureau; Game of Thrones and various other tv series), Tian Jing (Special ID; Police Story: Lockdown; Dragon Nest: Warriors' Dawn) and Willem Dafoe (Shadow of the Vampire; Platoon; Spider-Man; The Fault in Our Stars; The Grand Budapest Hotel).

Action adventure, 103 mins, 12+, 3D

William Garin (Matt Damon) and Pero Tovar (Pedro Pascal) are two mercenary warriors travelling in China with outline plans to find and bring home some "black powder" (gunpowder). Along the way, their group is killed by an unseen being and they manage to cut off one of its limbs, thanks to lightning reflexes. Shortly afterwards, they come across the Great Wall which is populated by an army waiting for action.

It transpires that the Great Wall is keeping out the Tao Tie, viscious monsters which attack once every 60 years. William Garin is revered by the Chinese as he has cut off one of their limbs and has survived to tell the tale. Commander Lin Mei (Tian Jing) is the intermediary - she learnt her English from Ballard (Willem Dafoe), another mercenary who arrived 25 years beforehand but has not been allowed to leave.

While Garin and Tovar plan to escape, enlisting Ballard's help, they become involved in the first wave of attack by the Tao Tie and start to learn about the threat to the Chinese. Their allegiances start to diverge as the threat evolves.

A thoroughly enjoyable action film that features various aspects of Chinese culture from acrobatics to lanterns, and much inbetween. The storyline is set around the Great Wall of China and features some wonderful cinematography and much special effects in the form of the Tao Tie creatures. The storyline is quite predictable but the journey on getting there is well played out on screen with imaginative fighting sequences.