The Great Battle (2018)

A fun and undemanding war movie

Action- packed, this movie jumps in and doesn’t stop running until the end. It is a valiant underdog story of how ancient Korea fared against the onslaught of the invading Tang Dynasty of China.

The cast is pretty good. Everyone was believable enough in their role. Those playing Chinese roles spoke Chinese. Though I’ve adjusted enough to hearing it spoken to know it sounded a little stilted, it’s way better than having them speak Korean. That’s a peeve of mine in films of any sort- not using the language or at least the accent of the country the person is supposedly from. Perhaps it's because I don't particularly expect an action movie to make me sob or laugh hysterically, but I had no problem with any of the actors, or the story. I never lost immersion either, even if it didn't have me an emotional wreck. (Thank goodness, I wasn't watching it for that.)

The military tactics are clever and it was fun to guess how they would be counteracted. I’m not sure if they were ones actually recorded in history as having been used in that time frame, but they were believable, on both sides. (At least to some extent, we allowed for dramatization.)

This is an action movie, and doesn’t really have much romance in it. There’s a little poignant heartache, but it’s more of an aside than any running theme. Even so, it’s a great fun movie to watch, especially if you want to compromise on a date night. ;)

For those interested in history, the invading Chinese Emperor Taizong, aka Li ShiMin, is the first husband of Wu Zetian, the eventual only ruling Empress in the history of China. (Of course she’s not shown in this, she was an Imperial Consort at the time.) But fun! I’ve always wanted more details on that time frame- I’ve been fascinated by it since I was 12.



TL/DR: definitely see it. You won’t be bored, unless strategy eludes you and you just need to see gratuitous violence, or you live only for romantic dramas.

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Bravery, Chivalry, Sacrifice, Nobility, Love and Compassion. STOP HESITATING AND WATCH THIS

i watched it again tonight, it made me feel the same way i felt the first time i watched it.
An amazing movie about bravery, chivalry, sacrifice, nobility and heroism, will always remain one of my favorite war movies, it had super amazing CGI, great acting ,and fight scenes and tactics but it also had great character development and amazing relationship dynamic, it was beautiful despite the bittersweet scenes, what grabbed my attention the most was the heart of the people so resilient that it tugs at heart and the way it was filmed and acted, this was so empowering and inspirational and delivered much much more than i would have imagined, the emotions were so raw and the beauty of the messages it wanted to convey were immense, this movie deserves a round of applause and nothing less. IF YOU ARE HESTITATING WHETHER TO WATCH DUE TO THE BAD COMMENTS . it's honestly YOUR OPINION to decide, i love epic war and all, i was put of by the comments and when i went in to watch not knowing what to expect but man did it this movieee surpass all my expectations, YES some parts could've have been better but if you love a movie, you love it. and i absolutely, wholeheartedly loved it!
IN THE END IT'S JUST A MOVIE AND YOU SHOULD DECIDE WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT .

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The great battle, as the name suggests, is preparing the viewer for an epic battle. And there was one. However, the only thing worth watching was that. The script was lacking everything, from story to emotion. It was like the story line was just a few events that bridged the time between the begining and the battle. The characters were not explored properly either and they were just great warriors defending their ground. The small romance and frienship scenes here and there were not developed either. At least the fighting scenes were good and the battle was cleverly arranged. Plus, the performances were okay.

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A Great Battle indeed!

As the movie name suggests, this 2 hour movie is about the 2 month battle between the 5,000 army of Commander Yang in Ansi vs the 200,000 army of Chinese emperor Taizhong.

Not sure how accurate the war strategy depicted in the movie, but while watching with my friend, we were thinking, if we were Yang, how can we defeat a strong army with few troops and limited resources? The answer is a lot of strategy, courage, and faith. We did think they could have done more to defeat the Chinese army, like using fire and pushing the ladder much earlier but i guess they delayed these for a more epic scenes.

This movie boasts of an ensemble cast so they tried to have some story for each one, like Samul's trust in Yang, the rivalry between the Hwalbo and Poong, the tragic love story between Paso and Bekha, and love between Woo Dae and his mom. Jumong's bow added a mythical touch to the story (like King Arthur and his sword or Thor and his hammer).

Rating: 8.5/10

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Great cast, interesting timeline, intense battle scenes and good dynamics but it lacked a bit more character presence


I had to pause a few times, the tragedy lvls were high, the fight scenes intense, the strategies and counter attacks were impressive tho I have two comments later
And eventho they had good dynamics, frenemies, lovers, families, girl power, mentors, but it did lack a bit in laying out characters and deeper backgrounds, everything was superficial, understandably cuz the fight scenes were the focus, but it was a fine line between just a battle vs the emotional attachment


My NJK, idk if this was before his acting improved or if his stoic silent presence lurking in the background but I wouldn’t mind calling it a characteristic cuz he was “young” and not miraculously the hero
solhyun improved since my country, paso was as soft and cute as my sweet monster, my Stephanie ;( not enough scenes
I also didn’t notice at first that they were “protected” by the mountains from the back so eventho their castle size wasn’t big they had many resources

their counterattacks were impressive, every time it looked like there's no hope, they outsmarted their emenies
baekha should've poisoned her arrows, to get that close with so many ppl around was even less possible than what paso did
same with manchun. if your arrow has less than 1% chance, you should atleast hope a scratch can kill

then about the tunnel, eventho they didn't realize it sooner cuz they knew their sands the best, like the hill wasn't discreet, it took 3 months, so they should've thought of counter attacks faster, but couldn't they tie ropes and pull the pillars? like everyone even non army's could've pulled 😭

so that sear(?) betraying them made zero sense, like yeah kill more of your ppl and say "that's the only way we can not die.."

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Like Armageddon but anciaent and bloodier

This movie kept reminding me of the Amercan Movie Armageddon from 1998 and Aerosmiths song that follows. So If Gorgyo was earth and the Tankg dynasty was an astroid, horses where space ships and... okay so maybe not many simularityes there but like Armageeddon but extraelmy different movie with a lot of blood, and not one but a bunch of so called great batles...

The movie itself is pretty well made the OST is not amazing but it fits and setts the mood well. We get to seee several sides to a sotory as well as the implications of wasr and sacrafice. Questioning who th etraitor really is. The movie also shows human relations in a nice way and has some pretty good oneliners such as" Do you only choose th ebatles you can win" (or something like that) as well as some other lines that I have already forgotten but I think they where about the value of the people and what is worth protecting.

The movie is pretty blunt letting us hear them call right out the evils of wat when the concuring armeys pepp talk includes such lovely ideas as "MAke their childern your slaves and rape all their women (luckeyly they do not show those rapes on screen) but a whooooole lot of blood.

All n all a pretty okay watch for those in to less feelings, less romance and more blood fire, blood and more blod, did I mention blood?

Oh it also has some pretty beutiful scenerey.

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What stood out to me in this movie for me are the amazing cinematography, set production, the visual effects and the action scenes.

For the story, this is me as someone who watches a lot historical dramas (like Jumong that character is mentioned in the movie, worth to watch and understand what's the importance of this actual historical figure) and movies and who is interested in the actual history which the story take place. It is a quite a straight forward story with little twist, me who watch many war dramas I kind of already predicted what is going to happen in the story, at the start of the movie around the first 15 minutes it felt slow to me, it only picks up when the 2 main characters meet. Some of the side characters that were interesting I wished they were given enough time to show their background and backstory as I didn't feel the emotion when something happened to them. So the only interesting characters are your 2 main characters.

The acting were good in the movie, the standouts to me were the 2 main actors. Music was not memorable but good for the scenes. Overall I enjoyed this movie.

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Amazing!

I initially did not want to watch a movie that contained so much fighting and battle scenes. I prefer dramatic romance or comedic romance but I was drawn to it because I am a big fan of the Leading Male actor, Jo in Sung. I am so happy I did. What an amazing group of actors and story line. The heroics of several of the characters brought tears to my eyes and it is a movie that I will probably never forget. The second Male lead, Nam Joo-hyuk was also terrific. I just finished watching him in another movie, "Remembrance", which is also outstanding. All in all, a terrific job by all the actors, writers and entire movie crew.

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This Cast

PROS:
○Acting
○This Cast
○ Uhm Tae Goo
○Based of true history (not sure how historically accurate the film stayed. Need to research it)
○ The themes
○ The pacing
○The writing

CONS:
○Some shaky camera at times
○The CGI wasn't always great
○Some of the wigs weren't great

Overall glad I watched it.


⚠️TRIGGER WARNINGS⚠️
This is a war movie so these topics are through out the film.
◇Death💀
◇Violence
◇Suicide
◇Blood🩸
◇Some Language
◇Talk of sexual assault (not on screen)

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