The Wandering Earth - L'inizio

I saw this film last night with perhaps twenty others. Most of the audience were young and female. And Mandarin speaking.

My province in Canada - British Columbia - has a large Asian community but this mainland China blockbuster is only being shown in two cities, Vancouver and Victoria.

Pity.

In some ways the film's story surprised me: there is a mission, the mission seems largely Chinese led, but the success of this mission depends entirely on the cooperation of thirty three nations.

We dive in quickly with the arrival of 1138 new recruits who are blasted into space at 9 Gs. We are introduced to key characters who will have a role to play over the next three hours, amd thirty years.

Their mission is almost stillborn because of a successful, well organized and coordinated terrorist attack by 'terrorists' of DIGITAL LIFE. This group strongly disagrees with the coalition to build massive engines to move the earth away from the advancing sun predicted by science to hit Earth in one hundred years.

The balance of the film focuses on efforts to build those engines; preserve space elevators; move or blow up the moon. Obstacles at every point.

I grew irritated by on screen announcements of events that would unfold: in years, months, hours, minutes...

I appreciated how Sfx were used to show the great strides science could implement especially the supercomputer 550 and its successors.

I was able to sort out the leading players: two Chinese officials, a Russian and an American in a futuristic UN; two key Chinese scientists- hello ANDY LAU who looked impossibly young in the scenes with his AI daughter, and a handful of pilots who bond despite their nations' politics.

Indeed the closest I came to shredding a tear came late with said pilots 'volunteered' on essentially asus ice mission.

Did anyone else feel key characters were killed off, only to. Resurrected?

This film should challenge you: it should make you sad; you may feel you are helpless against what fate Mankind is maki f for itself.

If a significant part of the world's population questioned the existence of COVID, a significant number of people believe an election was stolen, I am relieved this film ends with "I choose hope".

The Wandering Earth II tells a disaster story from an oriental point of view instead of the western one (which is getting more and more cliche), where humans work as a team to face the overwhelming crisis. There's no hero who can save the Earth single-handedly; still, every effort matters.

In many ways, TWE II is a true sight for the sore eyes in nowadays movie industry, even by the criteria of Hollywood. Outstanding visuals & acoustics, compelling narrative, numerous convincing concepts and details, and furthermore, a much more "universal" human value. It raises the ceiling for movies of the same genre to a whole new level.

If you let go of all the stereotypical thinking and preconceived bias against Chinese movies, then TWE II is definitely worth seeing (better in IMAX).

(Taking one star off in case they get cocky /doge)

If you are a fan of science fiction films, action blockbuster films, or both, then this movie is for you. This movie takes the usual Hollywood sci-fi movie tropes and puts a unique Chinese spin on them. Without getting into details, it's about a group of scientists and astronauts trying to save the world from imminent destruction while governments disagree on the best course of action. The movie takes us on a wild ride as teams of unlikely heroes face moral dilemmas and make sacrifices to secure the future of mankind. At its core, the film delivers a hopeful message about the power of humanity when we work together to solve problems - a message that is sorely needed in the current times.

Pros: Jaw-dropping action sequences, slick CGI and some thought-provoking technological and philosophical concepts that will make you think about where humanity is headed in the future. Themes such as AI and automation, our increasing dependence on technology, the meaning of human existence and mortality, and the future of civilization, provide plenty of food for thought. There is also a major plot twist in the third act that you will not see coming, so stay tuned till the end, especially during the credits (there's an Easter egg scene that hints at a possible third installment to this franchise).

Cons: The movie is bit lengthy, at nearly 3 hours, so make sure you avoid drinking a lot of fluids before or during the movie. (Apparently the director already cut 80 minutes out of the movie, so it really was the equivalent of two movies packed into one.) Also, because the movie is multilingual, some languages are dubbed weirdly in some scenes, but it's easy to overlook this because you'll be too busy marvelling at the visuals or trying to keep up with all the action sequences.

Conclusion: If you are a fan of sci-fi action blockbusters then this movie is for you. Definitely do not miss it in cinemas - this is a movie that needs to be seen on the big screen.

1/ Get a IMAX ticket if you can. The film is 2D no need the 3D glasses but the special effects is absolutely amazing. Especially in the first 40 minutes, the effect of showing space elevator in the movie blow my mind.

2/ I like the concept of this movie, when human face disaster, all countries and nations unit as one to get through it instead of waiting some kind of not exist supper hero to save.

3/ From a interview of Liu Cixin( the author of The Wandering Earth) in CCTV. Movie TWE2 is a totally extended story. The screenwriter wrote a movie world view of 200,000 words.

4/ Most scene of this movie is filmed in Qingdao city, Shandong province.

5/ Actor who cast Zhou Zhezhi got nasopharyngeal carcinoma in 2000. He lost most part of his voice after surgical operation but he insist to use his own voice during filming. Most of his voice in movie was fixed by AI.

6/ Young Tu hengyu(casted by Andy Lau ) and Liu peiqiang(casted by Wu Jing) in movie used AI technology to create the their young looks by learning actors' pictures. And one more interesting thing, even though the AI can fix the man 40 year-old face to 20 year-old, but it is difficulty to let a 40 year-old man who act the version in 20 year- old himself. However, the director Guo Fan find a 21 year old actor to do the acting once. Then Wu Jing shadow it. That's so funny.

This one is better than the first movie, which is very rare these days. The story lines are great. Although there are some plots that do not make a lot sense, it doesn't affect the overall rating at all. It doesn't make me feel it's a 3hr movie at all. This is actually the best Si-Fi movie I have watched in the last 3 years (and I've watched a lot lol) and I think it's fair to say it's better than 70% of the Hollywood Si-Fi movies these days.

I'm looking forward to the third one now given there are some flash forward scenes hinting at the next story line. Also, don't miss the credits at the end. I left early and have to read up on the end credit scenes online afterwards.