REVIEW: The Wandering Earth 2 (2023)
One of the most creative Asian sci-fi movies of the last decade gets a sequel! How does it stack up and is it worth watching?
DISCLAIMER: This review contains affiliate links. Clicking on any of the images below will take you to Play-Asia for your consideration.
Based on an award winning sci-fi novel, the first movie was an awesome surprise. But the idea of a sequel was a bit confusing when the star of the first movie was killed and then announced for the sequel. So clearly, its a prequel - which means we get to explore the story of what happened before The Wandering Earth project was enacted.
PLOT
As humanity faces the end of its existence due to the death of the sun, a plan is enacted that will save the planet – the Wandering Earth project, which involves moving the moon out of Earth gravitational pull and then, using 10,000 thrusters, push Earth out of orbit and into a new Solar System.
As the same time this project is occurring, an alternative metaverse project dubbed “The Digital Life” is being developed, in where all human consciousness is uploaded into a server where a digital instance of that person will live forever.
We follow three main story arcs – Liu Peiqiang from the first movie, who is an acclaimed astronaut working on the Wandering Earth project, Tu Hengyu played by Andy Lau who is a researcher for the Digital Life project who faces a moral dilemma in trying to preserve the memory of his dead daughter Yaya, and Zhou Zhezhi and his assistance Xiaoyi, who are the Chinese representatives in the United Earth Government forum who fight to ensure the success of the Wandering Earth project.
The movie follows the two or so decades before the commencement of the first movie, leading up to the construction of the Earth Engines, the development of the sophisticated AI that runs everything, the construction of the Underground cities and all the terrorist disasters that occur before the Wandering Earth project is enacted.
The first thing you’re going to want to know is if this is a good film? Well it is, but it does come with a few massive caveats. For full enjoyment, this movie should really be experienced in the cinema on a giant screen. Like the first film, watching at home on a TV – regardless of the size – won’t do any justice to the film.
The movie is an utter spectacle, make no mistake about that. Cohesion of the story line and quite a lot of logic are put on the back foot, as action set pieces, explosions and lots of quick science adjacent talk take place to bamboozle the audience.
This movie really does put the “fiction” in the genre “science fiction”. But then the idea of moving the Earth out of orbit using thrusters powered by a finite number for rocks for 2500 years would always borderline on the more fantastical part of science fiction. This is pure sci-fi, so if you’re a junkie for this style, then this movie has you covered.
If it could be likened to anything, perhaps shades of Day After Tomorrow and other big Hollywood environmental disaster blockbusters of the early naughties are the closest similarities. Since Hollywood stopped making movies like that, it good to see someone else take over.
And visually, it would appear no expense has been spared. CGI snobs will probably snub their nose at an effect here and there, but the overall presentation is so grand that you’d hardly notice. The impressive parts that stick to my mind include the drones VS fighter jets skirmish when the space elevator is attacked by terrorists, and a few neat camera tricks involving a rotating camera and scene transitions.
For the nostalgic, there’s also a nice, albeit it rather awkward, deepfake homage to the late Ng Man Tat, who played the Grandfather in the first film. He appears in a very heartwarming and brief scene in Peiqiang and Doudou’s wedding. Doudou being Peigiang wife, and not his adopted daughter from the first film. As nice as this scene is, its clear that Deepfake technology just isn’t quite there yet.
However, I just couldn’t help but feel the movie was just 40 minutes too long, clocking in close to 3 hours, it was evident when about half way through the movie quite a few audience members ran out to go to the toilet, yours truly included. If you’re going to do 3 hours, follow Bollywood’s example and give the audience an intermission.
And this length is exacerbated by a rather ridiculous, stupid and pointless third act of the movie – the restoration of the internet. By this point of the movie, we are supposed to be set in the late 2050’s – and also by this stage I had also forgiven the movie for not even trying to update current technology. Everyone was still using keyboard and mice, flat screen monitors and perhaps the worst of all – mobile phones that look exactly the same as what we have now. Did mobile phone technology not advance?
There is also an interesting subplot about AI control, and to a greater extent, a world Government and other forms of government control, but those topics are best explored in more depth by a more politically minded or deep analysis movie channel.
Curious about the first movie? Check out my review below
What are my overall thoughts?
Overall, what would I give this film? It’s better than three stars, but not quite 4. So that makes it 3.5. That’s not a bad rating, its just means there are opportunities for improvement. There is clearly a scene missing, the Solar Flare incident, which means it appears we can expect a longer directors cut in the future – as we got with the first film, which is a shame because what this movie doesn’t need is to be longer. However it has impressive visual effects and a captivating story that while not necessarily the easiest to follow, is still exciting. If that internet act wasn’t there and it was replaced with a more logical explanation, then the rating would be higher. Either way, its an enjoyable film and I would recommend watching it in the cinema.
If you’ve seen it, what did you think?
Genre Sci-Fi Action
Director Frant Gwo
Starring Wu Jing, Andy Lau
Original Title 流浪地球2
Alternative Title The Wandering Earth Ⅱ
Country of Origin China
Release Date January 22 2023