Name: Movie Review: The Wandering Earth
Item: The Wandering Earth
Author: @chekohler

Hey Jesscientists

Since there's nothing decent on cinema or the small screen lately I thought I'd take a chance and check out an Asian blockbuster for a change. The Wandering Earth is currently on Netflix and is basically China's answer to Armageddon but without an Asian Bruce Willis or Ben Affleck. In the history of space annihilation movies, the genre has been pretty decent so I thought it would be worth 2 hours of my life.

The premise of the movie is distinctly outlandish so I was also keen to see how they justify everything and exactly how they were going to pull off this pretty bold story.

Image source: - channelnewsasia.com

What is The Wondering Earth About?

When the starts its process of dying out it starts becoming unstable and is expected to expand and consume the Earth. World governments stand behind the solution – to dot the planet with 10,000 gigantic jets and blast out to orbit on a 100-generation journey to a new home 4.2 light-years away.

The people of Earth build giant thrusters to move the planet out of orbit and sail to a new star system in an epic last stand for human survival.

What I thought of The Wondering Earth

I'm not even going to give this movie props for possible lost in translation here and to be blunt the main characters suck. The main protagonists, a brother and a sister, are depthless and one dimensional and have some of the best deadpan acting I've seen in a while.

The two are the most unlikable characters I've had to put up with in ages. The sister literally spends 90% of her lines crying or shouting for someone to save her. The brother is arrogant and apparently a "genius", yet seems to have no redeeming qualities.

There is only the thinnest veneer of characterization and it's incredibly cliche. There is a rebellious kid who misses his father, a wacky weird side-character with funny hair, a father who had to leave his son, an army guy bound to duty, a comedic genius computer guy. Except none of these characters have chemistry.

The rest of the cast are all forgettable cannon fodder and could all die off and you wouldn't care a single bit.

I'm baffled by this film and the positive reviews at all, if it were an American film I'm sure we would have torn it a new one.

The story is basically trying to take the best bits Armageddon, Interstellar, Gravity, 2001, and 2012 all mashed up into a barely coherent mess that you can't make heads or tails of, I struggled to pay attention and that wasn't even because of the Mandarin it was just really bad.

The CGI is decent at times and at other points its barely passable fora 90s flick, I may sound snobby but this movie doesn't have much going for it apart from the concept itself.

My rating for 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, bad acting and reliance on special effects, fantasy mumbo jumbo and chaotic action all fail and it misses the mark of executing a good movie.

Pretty sure the novel it is based on, would be a better option for anyone interested in the story.

I'll have to give this movie 3 Earth Engines out of 10

Could this even happen?

The reason I actually watched this movie is because of this YouTube video, I actually saw it first and decided I had to check out the film. In this YouTube video by because science, he explains how insane the concepts explored in this movie are and why they could never work.

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