Let's just say we overlook all the controversy that has occurred with this movie already...
Matt Damon still has an American accent in ancient China. That alone is a huge issue.
Cause you know, the United States didn't exist until the 18th Century...
Well, most modern accents wouldn't work.
And did you know that the modern New England accent that Matt Damon had is closer to the English accent of a few centuries ago than the current English accent??
Yeah, everyone that was in England a few centuries ago spoke one way... and like Matt Damon.
Haha!
Speaking as someone that suffered to learn to read and speak some small amount of Old, and Middle English I find this a hilarious justification for Matt Damon over any other Hollywood actor speaking in their normal accent.
Someone like Daniel Day Lewis might enjoy speaking as they would have in the late middle ages, and absolutely own it. I'd pay to see that (of course Daniel Day Lewis wouldn't sign up for a POS like this, regardless).
But, no one, especially the Chinese would be able to make head or tail of it all. And it would have the exact opposite effect of putting Matt Damon in it, which is make it marketable to middle of the road white people that want to see middle of the road friendly white faces, with middle of the road friendly white voices.
Ps - if you want a Hollywood actor that sounds something like they might have spoken go for some one like Colm Meaney mixed with Rhys Ifans, but only if they were trying to channel the knights from Monty Python's Holy Grail.
Then you might be getting closer to what Matt Damon should sound like.
I tried to find a video of someone practicing Middle English and nailing it, but they are mostly American academics, or really bad it. They illustrate the sentence structure, and basic pronunciation, but their accent and intonation is miles off. It's like listening to a Californian read Japanese, who never heard it spoken by a Japanese person, versus a Japanese person speaking Japanese with the right inflection.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi-rejaoP7U
Jump to 2:15. This is a really good video and this guy shows what Shakespeare actually sounded like in the mid 1500's. If you went back in time you would not sound more like Matt Damon.
And if you sounded like Matt Damon on stage they would probably die in hysterics, and/or throw fruit.
He doesn't have an American accent. Just like the Russians in The Hunt for Red October aren't actually speaking English. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TranslationConvention
"I'm not arguing that with you. I know he can get the job, but can he do the job?"
Thank you.