Netflix viewers shocked as controversial box office flop lands in top 10 most-watched films - despite a 35% Rotten Tomatoes score

A 2017 box office failure and “ill-advised” monster movie is currently ranked number six in the list of most-watched films on Netflix.

The film titled The Great Wall, starring Matt Damon in the lead role, is an American and Chinese co-production which premiered in Asia in 2016.

Damon plays a mercenary warrior who discovers many secrets while imprisoned in the Great Wall of China.

The film also stars Pedro Pascal, Willem Dafoe, Andy Lau and Kenny Lin.

The Great Wall has been available to stream on Netflix since May 1 and has grossed nearly $335 million at the worldwide box office despite its 35% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Despite its $150 million budget, Deadline said its disappointing performance cost Legendary and Universal $75 million.

The 2017 film The Great Wall starring Matt Damon is currently the sixth most-watched film on Netflix. It became available for streaming on May 1

The film tells the story of two European mercenary warriors who survive a monster attack a few kilometers from the Great Wall of China, but are imprisoned by an anonymous order.

The Great Wall was filmed in New Zealand and Quindao, China in 2015.

It tells the story of two European mercenary warriors named William (Damon) and Tovar (Pascal) who are survivors of a monster attack while searching for gunpowder near the Great Wall of China.

The warriors are taken prisoner by an anonymous order led by General Zao (Hanyu Zhang) and Strategist Wang (Lau).

The Nameless Order was created to fight Tao Tie, a mythological creature that attacks once every 60 years.

A man named Sir Ballad (Dafoe) frees William and Tovar, and the warriors eventually gain the respect of the order after putting their fighting skills to use.

The battle is fierce and the film’s plot thickens over time, with the deaths of thousands of humans and CGI creatures.

So who makes it out alive? How many monsters survive? Will the warriors have their gunpowder? Viewers will just have to stream and see for themselves.

The Great Wall was a critical failure, but also a dud in the eyes of audiences who gave the film an audience score of 42% on Rotten Tomatoes.

One of the reasons behind the audience score could be the controversy behind the film before its theatrical release in the United States.

Pedro Pascal plays Pero Tovar, a Spanish mercenary warrior imprisoned with Damon’s character, William Garin.

The two mercenary warriors gain the respect of members of the anonymous order led by General Shao (Zhang Hanyu) and Strategist Wang (Andy Lau).

Garin and Tovar were able to earn the respect of the Nameless Order by showing off their impressive combat skills after being freed by Sir Ballard (Willem Dafoe).

Some critics have called Damon’s casting a “whitewash” due to their belief that his role should have gone to a person of Chinese descent.

Damon insisted at a press conference in Beijing that the role of William “was always intended to be European”.

Hustlers star Constance Wu sparked a frenzy after tweeting: “We need to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only (sic) the white man can save the world” following the release of the film’s trailer .

“Once people see that it’s a monster movie and it’s a historical fantasy and I didn’t take out the role of a Chinese actor… it wasn’t changed because from me,” Damon said during the press conference.

Interestingly, most of the negative reviews were not directed at the “whitewash” accusations but rather at the film as a whole.

The main monster of the film is Tao Tie, a mythological creature that attacks once every 60 years. The creatures arrived in China from a meteorite

“What a disappointment that Chinese master Zhang Yimou and Hollywood star Matt Damon have come up with a B-grade creature feature with delusions of grandeur,” wrote Rolling Stone’s Peter Travers.

Alissa Wilkinson, a reviewer for Vox, also wrote a harsh review of the film that she did not find entertaining.

‘It’s big. It’s breathtaking. This is China. And he is definitely a legend,” she wrote.

“He doesn’t have a single thought in his noggin either, but he has armies of toothy monsters.”

Users on X (formerly Twitter) weren’t too happy with the film either, with some members even bringing up politics.

‘The great wall. A real shitty Chinese propaganda film starring Matt Damon currently streaming on Netflix. It’s good for a laugh”, someone tweeted.

However, not everyone had bad things to say about the film.

The Great Wall grossed nearly $335 million on a budget of $150 million and was considered a box office bomb due to its theatrical performance in the United States. It also received bad reviews

Social media users are divided over the film. Many users on X (formerly Twitter) called the film “so good”, while others trashed The Great Wall due to its casting and supposed political message.

X users didn’t elaborate on what they liked about the movie in their tweets, but many of them called The Great Wall “so good.”

Critics also praised the film’s fight sequences.

“A well-paced action film that doesn’t waste much time on foreplay or explanation before diving headlong into a prolonged, carefully orchestrated fight against a horde of gruesome creatures,” wrote CNN’s Brian Lowry.

Vulture’s David Edelstein called the film a “hoot and a half” and The Village Voice’s Bilge Ebiri even called The Great Wall “absolutely dazzling.”

“The Great Wall is unlike any American blockbuster you’ve seen, a conservative film with action set pieces that are actually inventive and thrilling enough to be worth your time,” wrote a RogertEbert.com reviewer.