As Matt Damon’s controversial big-budget movie “The Great Wall” hits North American theaters on February 17, the Twitterverse has come prepared with the hilariously sarcastic hashtag #thankyoumattdamon.
The made-for-Hollywood, Chinese-U.S. co-production has been widely criticized for allegedly perpetuating the “white hero” complex by having Damon in the lead role.
Now Twitter users are reminding Damon of how most people feel about the movie by sarcastically saying thanks for saving the world with his whiteness, via the hashtag #ThankYouMattDamon.
Here are some of the hilarious ones:
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While Damon earlier explained that he wasn’t whitewashing a role that was originally written for a white character, the reasoning clearly misses the point as the criticisms towards the film are mostly aimed at the tired narrative of having the need of a white man to be the savior of Asian people.
One of the film’s most vocal critics is “Fresh Off The Boat” actress Constance Wu who wrote a long post pointing out the faults of such types of films.
“We have to stop perpetuating the racist myth that only a white man can save the world. It’s not an actual fact,” Wu wrote via Twitter in July. “It’s not about blaming individuals. Rather, it’s about pointing out the repeatedly implied racist notion that white people are superior to POC and that POC needs salvation from our own color via white strength. When you consistently make movies like this, you ARE saying that. YOU ARE.”
The film currently has an approval rating of 35% based on 49 reviews, with an average rating of 4.9/10 on movie rating aggregator Rotten Tomatoes.
The movie’s critical consensus reads, “For a Yimou Zhang film featuring Matt Damon and Willem Dafoe battling ancient monsters, The Great Wall is neither as exciting nor as entertainingly bonkers as one might hope.”
“The Great Wall is easily the least interesting and involving blockbuster of the respective careers of both its director and star,” Clarence Tsui of The Hollywood Reporter wrote in her review.
