The Wandering Earth

Having raked in over $600m at the box office, The Wandering Earth is yet another massive blockbuster from China. However, like so many enormous Chinese blockbusters in recent years, it's all style and no substance, with excessive emphasis on special effects and incoherent fantasy that really impedes any attempts to craft a more elegant or majestic space opera.

And that's where I want to start, because from the beginning of this movie, you'll likely be reminded of a number of other films that go about telling sci-fi stories in a rather different way. The Wandering Earth is based on a novel of its own, so it's not in any way a Chinese remake, but the premise and key ideas explored in the film, particularly in the opening act, are hugely reminiscent of both Christopher Nolan's Interstellar and Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Now, both Interstellar and 2001 are absolute masterpieces of modern sci-fi, because they tell a fantasy story with a stunning sense of grandeur and majesty that can't be achieved in any other genre. In that, while both movies have a plot and characters of their own, it's almost as if space itself is their main component, with astonishing visual effects playing into an eye-opening and almost spiritual depiction of the final frontier.

The Wandering Earth, on the other hand, takes a far more simplistic and unfortunately dull approach to telling a sci-fi story. It does have the special effects to dazzle (although I talk more about that in a moment), but it feels so much more like a formulaic space adventure movie, rather than the majestic space opera that it's so desperately trying to be.

Its opening sequence depicts the ever-intensifying threat of celestial destruction, and throughout, the film relates personal difficulties and tragedies in tandem with the danger of space travel and colonisation. And yet, while all of those ingredients make the film ripe for the sort of emotionally hard-hitting and elegant watch that is a great space opera, it's all overwhelmed by its more basic blockbuster tendencies.

In that, the film's quartet of young leads takes a little of the grandeur out of the story, bringing it closer to something reminiscent of the YA genre, while the special effects are often totally over the top, with an excessively brash and chaotic depiction of the dangers and threats present in space, something that really isn't necessary, as proved by better films such as Interstellar and Gravity.

On top of that, its near future setting, although only in the late 2050s, feels light years away from the present we know today. Unlike Interstellar, whose near future is almost identical to the present day, The Wandering Earth is full of fantasy and sci-fi gibberish about the Earth of the future that's both fairly incomprehensible and difficult to relate to, further taking away from your ability to emotionally engross yourself in the story and feel the real power of what this story has to offer.

And I say that because, despite not thinking much of the movie, there are moments where the film really tries hard to be something more majestic and elegant than just another space adventure. Its fantasy and excessive special effects often make it feel more like Jupiter Ascending than Interstellar, but there are a few moments of emotional intrigue and pathos that do indicate its intentions, and briefly provide an engrossing and impressive respite from an otherwise both chaotic and formulaic movie.

Overall, then, I wasn't particularly taken by The Wandering Earth. Its ambition is clear from the start, and with a premise that's reminiscent of real greats of modern sci-fi, it should have been an elegant, moving and majestic watch. However, with a generic plot that's far heavier on brash special effects, fantasy mumbo jumbo and chaotic action, it really misses the mark when delivering a sci-fi that's a little more special to the normal fare.

1. Background settings have great imagination. Very romantic in some way. (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) 2. Visual effects is wonderful (and made by Chinese, not easy) (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) 3. Plot not good. The director didn't handle to tell the story well. Rhythm is weird. Plot is not mind-catching. (⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐) 4. Ideas are too narrow. The main roles take family relation more seriously than human survival. And they didn't respect rules. (⭐⭐⭐) 5. Emotional expressions not natural. Lines are awkward. Too much 'tear points' but got little touching. (⭐⭐⭐⭐)

"If you drive unsafe your family will cry", this is a line from the movie, I bet the original Chinese text was far better then this translation, but that's what we have to deal with. In stead of doing a decent job the translation is terrible, so with this movie you got the choice, go with the terrible dubbed English language or go for the far more terrible subtitles. So it is possible I watched a masterpiece, but never know because of the translation.

For the movie, the cgi is not bad, not great, but good enough. The actors, well I couldn't care if they live or die. The action, well, remember "Armageddon", there all the action scenes were great, but made no sense at all so unrealistic were they, This is the same, totally unbelievable actions but you should not care one bit of that. About stealing from other movies, it seams this movie has bits of every disaster movie from the last decades in it. Plot holes are also to many to name, if you are sensitive for that you definitely should not watch. Bottom line, if you want a brainless flick with much action and cgi, then this movie is for you.

My Chinese friends got me into watching this and expected it to be some mindblowing piece. We both left the movie theater wishing we didn't watch it. It was not all that bad, they have beautiful casts, great cinematography, but that was it. Their storyline was weak, doesn't make any sense at times. There was no character development, no climax moment, no big twist and turn. Often times it was predictable and the jokes werent that funny at all, maybe it was funny to other Chinese audience. Yeah ok great explosion, nice suit yadi yadi but i can barely finish the movie if it makes no sense at all. Don't waste your time, it was overhyped!

This is the equal to any US blockbuster in years and I believe that most of the negative reviews are simply an offshoot of the Chinese equivalent of whitewashing. The hero's and decision makers are all Chinese and this is simply growing pains of the Chinese movie making industry and not unlike all movies made in western countries made for decades before the awakening of the globalist world view that has plagued the US in the 21st century. This is an excellent movie and those that say it's not are looking for tiny nits to pick.