The Great Wall

[Anakin McFly]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVw9YdP1O-0

So I thought this was such a blatantly unjustified instance of whitewashing and there would be no way for people to justify it or complain about SJWs, but as usual, I underestimated YouTube. Apparently it's not whitewashing because it wasn't white people casting a white actor in an Asian role, but Asian people creating a whole new white character so they could cast a white actor in the lead, which isn't racist at all.

"of all the fantastical stuff in this movie, I'm most confused by the white dude"

yes.

Also, according to them, Matt Damon is an SJW now. I like his acting and he seems a decent enough person who sincerely tries very hard, but based on incidents in which he was totally ignorant about race things (including in response to this movie) he's so not an SJW.

At the same time I'm sad for the Chinese cast and crew behind this movie, because it's such a huge effort on their part (biggest English-language production to date, I think), and apparently a lot of them are very excited about this, and they stuck in a white dude because that's what their analyses told them is needed for a movie to succeed globally.

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

Apparenly the director claims the role wasn't written for a Chinese person & that there are 5 heroes, the other 4 being Chinese.

http://www.ew.com/article/2016/08/04/gr ... matt-damon

Trailers do lie, so I wouldn't be surprised if Universal just cut something together to make Damon look like the lone white savior. Damon's name sells as does controversy.

[Anakin McFly]

Yep, though given the setting it's still sad that they needed a white character in there in the first place, or to have everyone speak English with Damon being more fluent than the locals (unrealistic for the setting despite the monsters and all), especially when it's one of the biggest productions from China. We don't see Hollywood doing the same - even when they stick in random Chinese actors to appeal to the China market, their roles are often tokenistic and everyone still speaks English. It could have been a huge hit, but the controversy is likely to harm it more than help. :/

[Unvoiced_Apollo]

New trailer:



Still make him look like the savior, but not as bad as the first trailer & we get to see more characters.