Director Frant Gwo flew around the world to create the effect of the kind of high-budget, global blockbuster typically associated with Hollywood movies. One of China’s biggest-ever cinema hits, The Wandering Earth is a sci-fi disaster adventure set in the future. To prevent a solar catastrophe, Earth is implanted with propulsion rockets and guided out of orbit.
As the planet’s surface freezes and the dwindling population takes refuge below, astronauts must navigate the planetship to a new home. The film’s vast scope contributed to its success in China, where it was highly acclaimed, but it was not enough to make it a global phenomenon. (In the United States, it opened in select theaters before making its streaming debut on Netflix.)
The sprawling and at times mind-boggling world-building in Wandering Earth, which was inspired by a short story by Cixin Liu, author of The Three-Body Problem, left plenty of potential for a sequel. The Wandering Earth II, which is getting wider distribution in the US in addition to its Chinese debut, is even less likely than a disaster movie sequel; it is a precursor.
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Gwo must have grown attached to the less chilly version of his home planet
Set over several decades before Earth’s launch from orbit (powered by thousands of fusion-powered engines around the world), the plot of this prequel retains much of the haphazard maximalism that characterized the original.
A seemingly mad scientist promotes a “digital you that can live forever” as a means of avoiding the end of the world. This strategy is based on artificial intelligence and is being marketed as a last-ditch effort to prevent the extinction of humanity.
We hear that 91% of Americans are against pushing the Earth out of orbit because they don’t think a problem 100 years in the future is worth solving, and that pro-digital terrorist organizations are taking a big space elevator. have attacked, causing explosions and gravity fistfights. A government official laments that “the world is not on the side of reality”.
The Wandering Earth II has a ton of movies and a lot of catastrophes, countdowns, and chyrons going around. The film contains an unprecedented number of subtitled sets, periods, people and even gadgets. Astronaut Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) from the first movie, some background information is given here. One of the computers also shares this opinion. The writers take inspiration from Interstellar one moment and Moonfall the next.
The seriousness of Wandering Earth II is the biggest joke
There are some funny scenes, but overall the movie is surprisingly dark in an admirably ambitious but questionably effective way. Many photos, including those not taken on the Moon, are shot in a sombre, moon-gray color scheme. The most heartbreaking storyline follows Tu Hengyu (Andy Lau), a scientist who loses his wife and children and becomes convinced that he can perfect artificial intelligence by modifying its digital echoes.
The tragic family death plot isn’t the only predictable lull in the action. When the dangerous solar activity increases, an additional character must deal with his wife’s impending death as cancer rates rise. Meanwhile, he tries to get one of the coveted tickets of the underground city.
Gwo manages this burden with more elegance than many so-called modern masterpieces. While the Wandering Earth series is stylistically similar to the work of Roland Emmerich and Armageddon by Michael BayGwo doesn’t hesitate to include peaceful moments amongst the bombast.
He doesn’t stuff his films with lame jokes or desperate attempts to laugh out of nervousness. Even more so than in the first film, which found some lyrical imagery among the cheaper-looking visual effects, some of his artwork has an eerie, almost melancholy beauty.
How many times can a movie count down to impending catastrophe before audiences start to tire of it, especially when Earth is clearly still habitable at the start of the next movie? The audience already knows that Earth will be fine, which is why Wandering Earth II becomes a torture mechanism for its new cast members: Earth will continue to spin, but in the meantime these hapless schmucks can still be tortured.
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While I highly doubt that was Gwo’s goal, it’s amazing that his three-hour Wandering Earth prequel is both wilder and more emotionally anchored than the original. Despite being so long and containing some memorable scenes and sympathetic protagonists, the film ultimately lacks a certain human touch. The classic disaster movie offers an experience similar to that of a horror movie, albeit on a grander scale, with the viewer experiencing both the fear of oblivion and the relief of survival.
The strategy may be outdated at this point. The modern bombardment of catastrophic news is overwhelming, but Wandering Earth II, as good as it is, feels more like an immersion treatment. Global calamities have become like sequels in that they never really end.
On Sunday, January 22, on the first day of the lunar new year, The Wandering Earth II will be released in theaters.
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We have provided you with reviews related to Wandering Earth II here. This movie is truly one of the best sci-fi movies you will see. Set decades before Earth is launched out of orbit by hundreds of fusion-powered engines, this prequel shares the chaotic maximalism of the original. Go book your shows now, you won’t regret it. Visit to stay up to date with the latest news Leedaily.com.
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