The Wandering Earth (2019)
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The Wandering Earth Movie Review
The Wandering Earth is a 2019 Chinese science fiction disaster movie directed by Frant Gwo and starring Qu Chuxiao. It’s a weak, but important flick.
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“Bože moj!“
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First and foremost, this movie is basically a disaster movie with some big sci-fi elements, but it isn’t a SF film by no means as at its core it’s a disaster action flick and because I dislike that genre tremendously, I ended up not loving this one either. However, it’ so much smarter, more realistic and more epic than countless other US genre counterparts so I found it better than most said movies.
The Sun is dying out, the Earth is extremely cold and on course to collide with Jupiter and it is up to the combined forces of all people to stop that. Eventually they manage to survive and they set off to find a new planet to call their own in the next system. I loved the fact that it’s going to take them 2500 years to get there as that’s more realistic, but still implausibly optimistic. I still would like to see the sequel to this movie where they go an interstellar journey toward that planet as that sounds much more interesting than what we got here.
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And that is basically one big popcorn disaster flick which quickly grew old for me. The action itself is definitely very well executed and quite thrilling at times, but the movie isn’t sophisticated enough for me, though again it’s not as stupid as the American genre films either. I also wanted more SF elements personally and I wanted a bigger emotional pull as the one we got here was all sorts of cliched and standard with not a shred of originality to it.
The characters are way too thin to make a big impact and personally I found all of them rather forgettable. The movie makes the fatal mistake of having way too many characters in it and thus they get the short end of the stick when it comes to any real character development. I did like the protagonist, the grandfather and the girl, but most of the others are way too one-note and underutilized. The acting performances are fine, but nothing too great.
The Wandering Earth looks absolutely awesome, there is no denying that. The special effects here are spectacular and it’s a great showcase of what Chinese filmmakers can do when they have a big budget to use and hopefully we will see more of epic science fiction movies from the country in the years to follow. That’s why I find this movie a step in the right direction, even if it’s oh so hollow in terms of plot and meaning.
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But the cinematography is great and the effects make it worth a watch alone with the ice imagery being superb and the various tech being superbly showcased. I also found the score so good and intense at times, incorporating the action on screen so well. The movie is very epic in quality and a visual dazzle for the eyes, but all of that spectacle cannot hide the fact that it’s empty in its insides. I did admire the fact that it included a positively portrayed Russian character and that the movie is thankfully global in scale and patriotic American blockbuster filmmakers should take notice of that as soon as possible.
The Wandering Earth is a very important Chinese spectacle film as it’s pretty much the first truly epic sci-fi movie from the country and it’s to be seen for its sheer spectacle and dazzling visual effects alone. However, all of those great audio-visuals could not save the movie from its obvious flaws which are in particular a hollow story and weak characterization. I did like its SF elements, but it’s nonetheless too much of a disaster movie in its approach.
