The Chinese science-fiction mega-hit “The Wandering Earth” is quite the movie. It’s a massive visual spectacle that stands as China’s second highest grossing film of all time. Just as impressive, it sits among the top 25 highest grossing science-fiction films ever made. That’s quite an accomplishment for director Frant Gwo. Now Netflix has picked up the global streaming rights making it accessible to a broader audience around the world.
“The Wandering Earth” is based on the 2000 short story by Liu Cixin. It’s set in 2061 and follows the desperate attempt of mankind to avoid having the earth incinerated by an aged and overactive sun. Scientists declare the catastrophe unavoidable and estimate the Earth will be gone in 100 years, the entire solar system in 300. Needless to say the situation is pretty grave.
So what do the citizens of earth do? Every nation joins together to initiate The Wandering Earth project. The idea is to build a huge network of massive thrusters (called Earth Engines) along the planet’s surface to essentially push the earth away from the sun and eventually out of the solar system before its all destroyed. Large underground cities are built to house a portion of the world’s population. Many of the rest die from cataclysmic tides and freezing cold, a result of the earth ceasing to rotate and pulling away from the sun.
All of that is basically the setup for the film’s story and as you can probably tell your first and unquestionably biggest challenge will be getting past the preposterous central conceit. Let’s be honest, it’s utterly ridiculous. But Gwo and his team of seven (yes seven) writers do something kind of amazing. They make this batty and fairly basic disaster movie idea into something exciting and thoroughly entertaining.
The story is told from two different locations. The first is aboard a navigational space station where an international collection of scientists and astronauts monitor the earth’s progress as it pushes across space. Liu Peiqiang (played by Jing Wu) has been on the station for 17 years and nearing the end of his stint. His hopes are to head back to earth and pick up his relationship with his son Liu Qi who was 4-years-old when his father left on his mission.
On earth an irreverent Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) and his adopted sister Han Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai) sneak their way to the surface by using their grandfather’s security clearance. Their mischievous antics lead to them being arrested and thrown into jail. Then things really take a bad turn.
As the earth approaches Jupiter scientists plan using the gravitational pull of the bigger planet to propel ours past it and beyond. But when Jupiter experiences a gravitational spike, it throws off calculations and begins pulling the planets together. Earthquakes break out across the earth’s surface resulting in numerous malfunctioning earth engines. Humanity on both the space station and earth scramble to reignite the engines to avoid a catastrophic collision.
The film features several things that are easy to pick apart – tons of information dumps, cheesy rah-rah moments, a garden variety of typical disaster movie characters. Yet somehow, despite routinely treading on familiar ground, “A Wandering Earth” never feels like a rip-off or becomes a punchline. It clearly and unashamedly borrows ideas from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “Gravity”, and even Michael Bay’s “Armageddon”. But it’s pacing is so snappy you never have time to dwell on it, only to enjoy the ride.
And then there are the digital effects. I don’t know if there is ever a scene where I wasn’t in some way wow’d by what I was seeing. It’s literally one scene after another of digitally rendered locations and set pieces all of which look absolutely stunning. This may be the biggest reason the movie works. It sucks you into its world through the sheer strength of its visuals.
“A Wandering Earth” is both ludicrous and routine yet I had an absolute blast with it. It’s truly a wacky concoction that’s hard to even describe. It’s impossible not to mention the familiar tropes and second-hand characters. But this is science-fiction escapism at its very best and can easily get behind the fun and craziness this movie provides.
VERDICT – 4 STARS
keithandthemovies.com 
One day Netflix will be mine too!
Ha! It should be. They’ve really stepped up their productions and distributing over the past few years.
nice review. am looking forward to seeing this. I guess these type of movies are made in two’s. There is another one I recently saw called ‘Aniara’. its not Chinese though. and I have a feeling you will not like it in the same way. it doesn’t have too much digital effects factor. will be very curious about your review on that one.
Thanks so much. I don’t know, I probably would like Aniara. For me setting is often more satisfying than showy special-effects. I would love to give that one a look.
you’re. welcome. just a general reminder, Aniara deserves it’s R rating. there are some unnecessary unsettling scenes.
Gotcha. I’ll keep that in mind.
I’m glad you liked it! I both appreciate it and and am still utterly confused by some of their choices lol.
Exactly! But that wonkiness is kinda what I liked about it. It’s such a weird concoction and I was pretty crazy for it.
I might see this as I wanna know what the Chinese are doing and see if they’re doing a better job than what Hollywood is doing.
This puts off quite a few big Hollywood vibes. It’s kind of crazy with a Chinese cinema influence that I really fell for. Just sit back and enjoy it. Don’t take any of it too seriously and you’ll have an absolute blast.
It’s fun to know that you liked it! I liked it myself but not as much as you; I was just thinking the characters are a little too bland for a story that ‘grand’.
Some are definitely bland. No doubt about it.
I’m glad to see that other people are finding this movie! Despite it’s box office success in the International Market, Netflix isn’t helping with literally no marketing and simply burying it in their queue. I really enjoyed this one though and since I don’t get to watch Chinese films often enough, I rather enjoyed leaving the English subtitles turned on 🙂 Thanks for the good review! Find me on Facebook @redbeardmoviereviews.
Netflix rarely does a good job promoting their movies. My biggest gripe about that platform is how poorly they promote their movies either through publicity or on their very own site. It’s crazy!
It seems people either love or hate this. For me, I’m just thrilled to see more Chinese sci-fi ventures. Ludicrous concepts can be fantastic fun when handled well. Great review, I’m really looking forward to seeing it for myself!
“Ludicrous concepts can be fantastic fun”. Absolutely! To be honest that’s one reason I responded so positively to this movie. If it had been darker or more “thought-provoking” I don’t think it would have been nearly as satisfying.
Thank you for your review! I didn’t know a single thing about this movie and I’m a bit ashamed, to tell the truth. Not only the story looks great (ludicrous, but great), but I should pay more attention to Asian movies!
Oh don’t feel bad. It slipped by me as well. Netflix is what brought it to my attention. It’s crazy but a lot of fun.
It does sound wonderfully wacky
HA! That’s actually a great way to describe it!!!
“Ludicrous” is the perfect descriptor for this. I could quite imagine Michael Bay sitting back masturbating to this one.
As a disaster movie fan, the premise intrigues me. Mostly.
It’s wacky beyond description but it is such a good time. And the special effects are superb. Definitely give it a look.
A thumbs up from you? Okay, now I really nee to watch this, I’ve had it laying around for ages. Chinese sci-fi…. gah I need to see what it will be like NOW!!
great review btw =] I don’t mind a silly central part of the theme, I just love sci-fi 😛 and those sorta things are part of the genre a lot of the time, something utterly ridiculous… but hey it drives the movie yknow.
Okay I’m gonna shut up now, and watch this movie!!! Let me know what you think of my review! If I watch it now it should be up tomorrow or the day after
Cheers big ears! 😉
Just let me know what you think. It’s such a goofy thing but I just can’t dismiss how much fun I had with it. I hope it is the same way with you. Let me know.
Gonna whack it on now 😀
It sounds as though it is worth a watch, thanks for the review.
Definitely worth a watch. Kinda silly but it’s very aware of it. It has a lot of funny with that silliness which is one reason it really worked for me. Give it a look.