The Wandering Earth

Roland Emmerich made in China. A plot like a modern Jules Verne, sometimes too flashy but still impressive digital effects, a catastrophic future with lots of nice ideas, a scene borrowed from one film, another from another... and a lot of heroes, most of whom I didn't really care about, which I'm sure the filmmakers didn't intend. But I had fun. (04.01.2020)

In one word – brutal. The Chinese made an epic adaptation of a short story by the most successful Chinese sci-fi writer of today, the author of the Three Body Problem trilogy. And because I’m in the process of reading that trilogy, which is a hard-core technological masterpiece, I was really enthusiastic about the idea. Be prepared for a hard-core sci-fi premise, unfortunately scattered with a few very inane “haha” moments by which the creators probably aimed to secure their commercial success. The digital visuals are, however, epic. There are many shots that would deserve to be framed and put up on the wall. If you accept the premise and get over a few logical lapses that even a lay public might notice and that never get properly explained, I think that you cannot be dissatisfied. I’m rating it with only three stars because it’s targeted at Chinese audiences and Chinese nature. Some of their exaggerated expressions are simply too much for me. The rest is excellent, though. (29.04.2020)

The sun is dying, so people decide to move the planet out of the solar system… No problem. An interesting idea with unconventional development standing somewhere between the Chinese and American approaches to heroism. The dramaturgy does not work at all (at least not for a Westerner) and the characters’ behavior is often really weird. The visually impressive scenes have a long way to go to reach the perfection of ILM, but they work. At least it looks good when they are sucking in the atmosphere. Even though it’s pretty stupid (I would be very interested to know how much it strays from the book – Liu normally has the physics nailed), the film flies by and something is always happening. Wandering Earth is sort of a Chinese Armageddon. (10.05.2019)

An Asian blockbuster that’s not afraid of being bombastic and throwing at the viewer one attraction after another. Unfortunately, the quality of the special effects doesn’t help it much and, more importantly, it takes itself way too seriously at times – our planet’s journey towards Jupiter is supposed to make the viewer relate to possible future scenarios. It’s narratively overstuffed and uses ridiculous shortcuts (the voice-overs are annoying), but made with gusto and original enough to go through those two hours in good health. Interesting Eastern diversification for one go. (11.05.2019)

Jacky Wu certainly has a knack for finding financially successful projects. After Wolf Warrior 2, he chose another successful box office hit, but the quality of the film itself isn't worth much this time. China decided to make their first big sci-fi flick, combining Gravity with 2012, and it's an unexpectedly unentertaining mess with quite capable CGI, but weak in terms of action and story-wise it doesn't really stand out either; it’s more like a rip-off of older more well-known sci-fi. 50% (10.05.2019)