Well this looks bonkers.
This came out in Russia/Asia last year as “Viy 2” and Arnold’s appearance is barely a cameo.
Was it any good? It looks awesome.
Was it any good? It looks horrible.
I actually can’t figure out if it looked awesome or horrible. Some moments during the trailer I almost cringed off of my chair, and other times I couldn’t look away, it was so wonderful. What a confusing trailer.
I think your comment points to one of the reasons I thought the trailer was horrible - it seems very disjointed as if there are two different movies there. This is, of course, due to the assumption of mine that Chan and Schwarzenegger don’t actually “star” in the movie and the trailer was the sum total of their screen time. And their screen time to me was flat and humorless. To prominently feature such cameos in your trailer doesn’t bode well for the other 95% of the movie.
In regards to the other 95%, much of what appeared in the trailer seemed low budget and, from what little was shown, a fairly paint-by-numbers plot line.
My immediate reaction was this looks like one of those Hollywood/Chinese co-productions designed to appeal to a Chinese audience and hopefully pull in some bucks internationally. Have any of those ben any good?
The Wandering Earth was all sorts of loony, but entertaining.
I guess technically Arrival was a co-production with very specific Chinese story additions meant for that market, so that one was good. Furious 7 was co-produced by China Film Group and most people thought that was entertaining.
If you’re talking stuff like Great Wall, primarily filmed and produced in China, then marketed to the west, then no.
Keep in mind that since 2016, Legendary Pictures, has been a Chinese-owned company.
Unneeded perhaps but I’d like to throw in that I meant awesome in the B movie sense of a big dumb spectacle. Sometimes that’s what I want out of a movie. Sort of a Chinese gloss on a sword and supernatural movie as done by Michael Bay perhaps?
Dude, then you really, really want The Wandering Earth. Total B-movie schlock story but with AAA production.
It’s on the list I keep for when I feel the urge for such things. The only problem is that I find it much easier to deal with such schlock with quasi historical or supernatural settings. I have a harder time with it in SF settings.
Did you watch The Great Wall? That might be just the thing for you. Matt Damon!
Again, its on the list.