wandering earth 2019

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The Wandering Earth

With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race. With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race. With the sun dying out, a group of brave astronauts set out to find new planet for the whole human race.

• Guangjie Li
• 843 User reviews
• 82 Critic reviews
• 57 Metascore
• 36 wins & 36 nominations

• Liu Peiqiang

• Zhang Xiaoqiang

• Zhao Zhigang

• (as Hao Ning)
• Yang Jie aka Liuzi

• Astronaut in Space Station
• French Resistant
• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

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• Trivia The story is based on Hugo Award winning novelist Cixin Liu's novel of the same name.
• Goofs The travel time from China to Sulawesi appears to be almost non-existent, which would be quite an achievement for a distance of 1000+ miles... in a truck... on ice.

Liu Peiqiang : Since the day The Wandering Earth project began... there was no going back.

• Connections Featured in Kunlun Fight: Kunlun Fight 80 (2019)

User reviews 843

• paul_haakonsen
• Aug 1, 2020
• How long is The Wandering Earth? Powered by Alexa
• How about the subtitle of the English Theatre Version ?
• Which book is this movie based on?
• Who's this original writer: Liu CiXin?
• February 5, 2019 (China)
• Lưu Lạc Địa Cầu
• Iceland (location)
• Beijing Dengfeng International Culture Communications Company
• Alibaba Pictures Group
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $48,000,000 (estimated)
• Feb 10, 2019
• $699,992,512

Technical specs

• Runtime 2 hours 5 minutes
• Dolby Atmos

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The Wandering Earth

2019, Sci-fi, 2h 5m

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Critics Consensus

The Wandering Earth 's story won't win many points for originality, but this sci-fi epic earns its thrills with exciting set pieces and dazzling special effects. Read critic reviews

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When the sun dies out, the people of Earth build giant thrusters to move the planet out of orbit and sail to a new star system. After 2,500 years, young people continue the fight for everyone's survival.

Genre: Sci-fi

Original Language: Chinese

Director: Frant Gwo

Producer: Gong Geer

Writer: Yan Dongxu , Gong Geer , Frant Gwo , Junce Ye , Yang Zhixue

Release Date (Theaters): Feb 8, 2019  limited

Release Date (Streaming): May 5, 2019

Box Office (Gross USA): $2.2M

Runtime: 2h 5m

Production Co: Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Company, United Entertainment Partners, China Film Company Limited

Cast & Crew

Li Guangjie

Jin Mai Jaho

Hongchen Li

Yichi Zhang

Jingjing Qu

Screenwriter

Yang Zhixue

Frank Michael Liu

Cinematographer

Ka-Fai Cheung

Film Editing

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China’s blockbuster The Wandering Earth is gorgeous, goofy, and on Netflix now

The country’s first big-budget science fiction epic is often familiar, but it does spectacle on an impressive scale.

By Tasha Robinson

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This review was originally published in February 2019, when the film was released in China, and in a limited theatrical run in America. It has been updated to reflect the film’s release on Netflix .

We’re living through a fascinating era of rapid change for the blockbuster movie model. America producers, eager to get their $200 million movies into the lucrative Chinese market, are increasingly looking for Chinese production partners, shooting in Chinese locations, and adding China-friendly characters and plotlines to American movies , even including extra scenes just for the Chinese cuts of films. But simultaneously, China and other countries are moving toward the blockbuster model themselves, creating homegrown films that don’t need to involve American partners at all.

And just as American films attempt to find paydays in foreign markets, foreign blockbusters are coming to America. The Wandering Earth , China’s hugely successful big-budget science fiction thriller, quietly slipped onto Netflix over the weekend, after a limited American theatrical run a few months ago. It shows a new side of Chinese filmmaking — one focused on futuristic spectacles rather than China’s traditionally grand, massive historical epics. At the same time, The Wandering Earth feels like a throwback to a few familiar eras of American filmmaking. While the film’s cast, setting, and tone are all Chinese, longtime science fiction fans are going to see a lot on the screen that reminds them of other movies, for better or worse.

The film, based on a short story by Three-Body Problem author Cixin Liu, lays out a crisis of unprecedented proportions: the sun has become unstable, and within a hundred years, it will expand to consume Earth. Within 300, the entire solar system will be gone. Earth’s governments rally and unite to face the problem, and come up with a novel solution: they speckle the planet with 10,000 gigantic jets, and blast it out of its orbit and off on a hundred-generation journey to a new home 4.2 light-years away. The idea is to use Jupiter’s gravitational well to pick up speed for the trip, but a malfunction of the Earth Engine system leaves the planet caught in Jupiter’s gravity, and gradually being pulled toward destruction. A frantic group of workers have to scramble to reactivate the jets and correct the Earth’s course.

The action takes place in two arenas simultaneously. On the Earth’s frigid surface, self-proclaimed genius Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) and his younger adopted sister Han Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai) get roped into the rescue efforts after they run away from home. Han is just curious to see the planet’s surface — most of humanity now lives in crowded underground cities, and the surface is for workers only — but Liu Qi is nursing a deeper grudge against his astronaut father Liu Peiqiang (longtime martial-arts movie star Wu Jing) and grandfather (Ng Man-tat, whom Western audiences might recognize from Stephen Chow’s Shaolin Soccer ). When Liu Qi was a child, his father moved to a newly-built international space station, designed to move ahead of Earth as a guide and pathfinder. Now an adult, Liu Qi feels his father abandoned him, and wants to strike out independently.

Meanwhile, on the space station, Liu Peiqiang is ironically a day away from completing his 17-year tour of duty and returning to Earth and his family when the crisis hits. The station’s artificial intelligence, MOSS, insists on putting the station’s personnel in hibernation to save energy, but Liu Peiqiang realizes the computer has a secret agenda, and he and a Russian cosmonaut set out to defy it.

The entire space plot may feel suspiciously familiar to American audiences, who have a strong emotional touchstone when it comes to a calm-voiced computer in space telling a desperate astronaut that it can’t obey his orders, even when human lives are on the line, because it has orders of its own. MOSS even looks something like the HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey : it’s represented as a red light on a gimbled panel, like a single unblinking, judgmental red eye. But a good deal of Liu Peiqiang’s space adventure also plays out like a sequence from Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 Oscar-winner Gravity , with dizzying sequences of astronauts trying to navigate clouds of debris and find handholds on a treacherous moving station while tumbling through space.

Meanwhile, the Earthside half of the mission resembles nothing so much as the 2003 nonsense-thriller The Core , about a team trying to drill their way to the center of the Earth to set the planet’s core spinning again. As with that film, Liu Qi and Han are part of a group trying to restart a failed system, and encountering most of their obstacles just in the attempt to get to the problem site. They pick up a few distinctive allies along the way, including biracial Chinese-Australian gadabout Tim (viral video star Mike Sui ), but mostly, the characters are drawn as blandly and broadly as in any American action movie, and a fair number of them get killed along the journey without ever having developed enough personality for audiences to feel the loss.

Pretty much any flaw The Wandering Earth can claim — flashy action scenes without much substance, a marked bent toward sticky sentimentality, an insistently pushy score that demands emotional response from the audience at every given moment — are familiar flaws from past blockbusters. Where the film really stands out, though, is in its eye for grandiose spectacle. Director Frant Gwo gives the film a surprising stateliness, especially in the scenes of the mobile Earth wandering the cosmos, wreathed in tiny blue jets that leave eerie space-contrails behind. His attention to detail is marvelous — in scenes where characters stand on Earth’s surface, contemplating Jupiter’s malicious beauty, the swirling colors of the Great Red Spot are clearly visible in reflections in their suit helmets.

No matter how familiar the plot beats feel, that level of attention not just to functional special effects, but to outright beauty, makes The Wandering Earth memorable. Not every CGI sequence is aesthetically impeccable — sequences like a vehicle chase through a frozen Shanghai sometimes look brittle and false. But everything having to do with Jupiter, Earth as seen from space, and the space station subplot is visually sumptuous. This is frequently a gorgeously rendered film, with an emphasis on intimidating space vistas that will look tremendous on IMAX screens.

And while the constant attempts to flee the destructive power of changing weather have their own echoes in past films, from The Day After Tomorrow to 2012 , Gwo mostly keeps the action tight and propulsive. The Wandering Earth is frequently breathless, though the action occasionally gets a little muddled in editing. At times, particularly on the surface scenes where everyone is wearing identical pressure suits, it can be easy to lose track of which character is where. It’s often easy to feel that Gwo cares more about the collective rescue project than about any individual character — potentially a value that will work better for Chinese audiences than American viewers, who are looking for a single standout hero to root for.

But the film’s biggest strengths are in its quieter moments, where Gwo takes the time to contemplate Jupiter’s gravity well slowly deepening its pull on Earth’s atmosphere, or Liu Qi staring up, awestruck, at the gas giant dwarfing his home. In those chilly sequences, the film calls back to an older tradition of slower science fiction, in epic-scale classics like 1951’s When Worlds Collide or 1956’s Forbidden Planet . The interludes are brief, but they’re a welcome respite from chase sequences and destruction.

The Wandering Earth gets pretty goofy at times, with jokes about Tim’s heritage, or Liu Qi’s inexperienced driving and overwhelming arrogance, or with high-speed banter over an impossibly long technical manual that no one has time to digest in the middle of an emergency. At times, the humor is even a little dry, as when MOSS responds to Liu Peiqiang’s repeated rebellions with a passive-aggressive “Will all violators stop contact immediately with Earth?” But Gwo finds time for majesty as well, and makes a point of considering the problem on a global scale, rather than just focusing on the few desperate strivers who’ve tied the Earth’s potential destruction into their own personal issues.

Much like the Russian space blockbuster Salyut-7 was a fascinating look into the cultural differences between American films and their Russian equivalents, The Wandering Earth feels like a telling illustration of the similarities and differences between Chinese and American values. Gwo’s film is full of images and moments that will be familiar to American audiences, and it has an equally familiar preoccupation with the importance of family connections, and the nobility of sacrifice. But it also puts a strong focus on global collective action, on the need for international cooperation, and for the will of the group over the will of the individual.

None of these things will be inherently alien to American viewers, who may experience The Wandering Earth as a best-of mash-up of past science fiction films, just with less-familiar faces in the lead roles. But as China gets into the action-blockbuster business, it’ll continue to be fascinating to see how the country brings its own distinctive voices and talents into a global market. The Wandering Earth feels like the same kind of projects American filmmakers are making — accessible, thrill-focused, and at least somewhat generic, in an attempt to go down easy with any audience. But there’s enough specific personality in it to point to a future of more nationally inflected blockbusters. Once every country is making would-be international crossovers, the strongest appeal may come from the most distinctive, personal visions with the most to say about the cultures they come from.

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"The Wandering Earth" cured my winter depression. 

Seriously: on opening night, I happily joined a packed Times Square auditorium-full of moviegoers watching this science-fiction adventure, which stars a talented ensemble of of Mandarin-speaking actors trying to stop the Earth from crashing into Jupiter. I left the theater hoping that "The Wandering Earth"  would be one of this year's Chinese New Year's hits . It grossed $300 million in China during its opening week alone, a hopeful sign that we'll see more entertainment as assured as this.

The setup might seem familiar at first. Two teams of astronauts fight to save the Earth years after its leaders transformed it into a planet-sized spaceship to escape destruction by an overactive sun. The first team is a two-man skeleton crew: the square-jawed Peiqiang Liu ( Jing Wu ) and his Russian cosmonaut buddy Makarov ( Arkady Sharogradsky ). The other is a small exploratory group led by Peiqiang's feisty twentysomething son Qi Liu (Chuxio Qu) and his upbeat partner Duoduo Han (Jinmai Zhao). These factions respectively spend most of their time battling MOSS, an unhelpful computer in a remote space station; and exploring an ice-covered Earth in stolen all-terrain vehicles (some of which bring to mind "Total Recall," specifically the tank-sized drill-cars).

But while director Frant Gwo and his writing team blend Cixin Liu's source novel with elements from American-made sci-fi disaster films—including " Armageddon ," " The Day After Tomorrow ," and "Sunshine"—they synthesize them in a visually dynamic, emotionally engaging way that sets the project apart from its Western cousins, and marks it as a great and uniquely Chinese science fiction film.

For one thing, rather than build the tale around a lone hero ringed by supporting players, "The Wandering Earth" distributes bravery generously amid an ensemble that includes action hero Wu; rising stars Qu and Zhao; and comedy institution Man-Tat Ng, who plays a grey-bearded spaceman named Zi'ang Ha. The script, credited to a team of six, never valorizes a singular chest-puffing hero, nor does it scapegoat a mustache-twirling antagonist (not even MOSS, the sentient, HAL-9000-style computer program in the space station). 

The teamwork theme is cross-generational, too. Both Peiqiang and Ng (formerly the straight man to film comedy superstar  Stephen Chow ) are treated with reverence because they're older, and are therefore presumed to have more experience and stronger moral fiber. The veterans work well with the film's younger astronauts, whose optimism makes them as brazen as they are idealistic. 

This apolitical blockbuster about a post-climate-change disaster extends its belief in teamwork to the rest of the international community. The movie is filled with narrative diversions that reassure viewers that no single country's leaders are smarter, more responsible, or more capable than the rest—except, of course, for the Chinese.

Second, "The Wandering Earth" looks better than most American special-effects spectaculars because it gives you breathing space to admire landscape shots of a dystopian Earth that suggest old fashioned matte-paintings on steroids. Although Gwo and his team realized their expensive-looking vision with the help of a handful of visual effects studios, including the  Weta Workshop , they have somehow blended their many influences in bold, stylish ways that only Hollywood filmmakers like James Cameron and Steven Spielberg have previously managed.  

Third, the film's creators breathe new life into hackneyed tropes. Gwo and his team take a little extra time to show off the laser beams, steering wheels, and hydraulic joints on their space cars and exoskeleton suits, to make the gear seem unique. And the storytelling goes extra mile to show viewers the emotional stress and natural obstacles that the characters must overcome while solving scientifically credible dilemmas (all vetted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences). This movie may not be the next " 2001: A Space Odyssey ," but it's everything "2010: The Year We Make Contact" should have been (and I like "2010," a lot).

A week after seeing "The Wandering Earth," I'm still marveling at how good it is. I can't think of another recent computer-graphics-driven blockbuster that left me feeling this giddy because of its creators' can-do spirit and consummate attention to detail. The future is here, and it is nerve-wracking, gorgeous, and Chinese.

Simon Abrams

Simon Abrams is a native New Yorker and freelance film critic whose work has been featured in  The New York Times ,  Vanity Fair ,  The Village Voice,  and elsewhere.

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Film credits.

The Wandering Earth (2019)

125 minutes

Li Guangjie

Jin Mai Jaho

Qu Jingjing

Arkady Sharogradsky

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Film Review: ‘The Wandering Earth’

Chinese commercial cinema reaches a significant landmark with its first-ever sci-fi megahit.

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The out-of-this-world success of China’s first-ever sci-fi blockbuster, “ The Wandering Earth ,” proves that when it comes to watching special-effects extravaganzas in which stock characters scramble to intervene while the planet faces obliteration, it’s a small world after all. Director Frant Gwo ’s adaptation of the 2000 novella by Liu Cixin is no genre classic, but its furious pace, spectacular visuals, and fanciful plot deliver decent escapist entertainment. After accumulating an astronomical $640 million-plus domestically — plus a tidy $5 million on limited North American screens — since Feb. 5, this display of capability from China’s commercial film sector was snapped up by Netflix for future release on the streaming giant’s platform.

A hyperactive hybrid of doomsday films ranging from ’50s classic “When Worlds Collide” to Michael Bay’s bombastic “Armageddon” and, most notably, Ishiro Honda’s 1962 Japanese space opera “Gorath,” “The Wandering Earth” is perhaps most striking for its lack of nationalism and propaganda. Soft diplomacy, at most, is the order of the day. Politicians, bureaucrats, and army brass are nowhere to be seen. There’s barely a Chinese flag in sight, nor any chest-beating about Chinese ingenuity and leadership.

Instead, what’s presented is a traditional tale of nations and people pulling together to save the planet, with heavy doses of guilt, sacrifice, and redemption from the human characters. With global conflict and division so prevalent today, these messages of hope and unity have undoubtedly struck an emotional chord in many viewers, created positive word-of-mouth, and made the film much more accessible for international audiences.

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Viewers almost need a scorecard to keep up with a flood of information in the opening segments. In the near future, the sun is dying, leaving the freezing planet on the brink of destruction. What’s left of humanity is huddled in subterranean cities created with an eye-catching combination of steampunk, brutalist, and futurist influences by production designer Gao Ang. The United Earth Government, which is never seen and represented only by a French voice, has decided the only solution is to propel the planet to another galaxy 4.2 light years away. Everything depends on 10,000 giant rocket thrusters being kept alight for the 2,500-year journey.

Enter Liu Peiqiang, a widowed astronaut played with appropriate solemnity by “Wolf Warrior” series superstar Wu Jing , who is sent to a space station and tasked with navigating Earth’s path through the solar system, leaving behind young son Liu Qi and father-in-law Han Zi’ang (Ng Man-tat, “Shaolin Soccer”). In a nostalgic nod to Cold War days before the Sino-Soviet split, Liu’s best work buddy is likeable cosmonaut Makarov (Arkady Sharogradsky). (Oddly enough, almost the entire cast are given “special appearance by” or “guest starring” credits.)

Seventeen years later, Liu’s still in orbit, while Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) has bcome an angry young man and self-proclaimed genius who blames his mother’s early death on his absent father. On the very day his dad is due to finish his stint and return home, Liu Qi and adopted teenage sister Duoduo (Zhao Jinmai) sneak away to see the frozen surface for the first time. As they’re taking in the spectacular sights of ice-covered Beijing, a major rocket thruster malfunction sends Earth into the gravitational pull of Jupiter. Unless a miracle occurs in the next 37 hours, it’s goodbye Earth.

The warp-speed screenplay, co-written by producer Gong Geer, finds Liu guiding operations from above while the youngsters join rescue team boss Wang Lei (Li Guangjie) and his crew down below to pull off the impossible. Just one of the seemingly insurmountable obstacles facing Liu is MOSS, a HAL 9000-like computer with a secret agenda. In one of the film’s standout scenes, Liu and Makarov execute Cirque du Soleil-worthy gymnastics on a dangerous space walk in defiance of their AI comrade-turned-monster.

The clinical setting and near-silence of Liu’s task is nicely contrasted with the noisy, hair-raising ride of Liu Qi, Duoduo, and obviously-doomed grandpa Han Zi’ang on Earth’s rapidly crumbling surface. Though everyone plays second fiddle to mostly-impressive CG effects, Zhang Yichi scores some fine comic moments as Yiyi, the rescue team’s nerdy and nervous tech guy. Disappointingly, female characters other than Duoduo barely factor into the story.

When death, destruction, and outpourings of emotion are set aside, we’re treated to some truly beautiful images of Jupiter’s swirling surface and wispy vapor trails surrounding Earth as it glides through the blackness of space. But these are merely momentary breathers in a tale that hurtles to more climaxes than it actually needs, easily forgiven on account of the film’s display of technical wizardry.

Costuming, art direction, and DP Michael Liu’s widescreen photography are top-class. Apart from a handful of shoddy effects along the way, all other technical work is excellent. As in so many tentpole spectaculars, a heavy-handed orchestral score unashamedly attempts to manipulate audience emotions at every opportunity — unnecessary, since the film’s loud-and-clear theme of collective human effort outweighing the actions of individuals hardly needs such underscoring to resonate with audiences.

Reviewed at Greater Union Film House, Adelaide, Feb. 26, 2019. (Original title: “Liu lang di qiu”)

• Production: (China) A United Entertainment Partners, China Film Co. Ltd. (in China), China Media Capital (in U.S.) release of a Beijing Jingxi Culture & Tourism Co., China Film Co. Ltd., United Entertainment Partners production. (Int'l sales: CMC Pictures, Shanghai.) Producer: Gong Geer.
• Crew: Director: Frant Gwo. Screenplay: Gong Geer, Ye Junce, Yan Dongxu, Yang Zhixue, Gwo, based on the novella by Liu Cixin. Camera (color, widescreen, HD): Michael Liu. Editor: Cheung Ka-fai. Music: Roc Chen, Tao Liu.
• With: Wu Jing, Qu Chuxiao, Zhao Jinmai , Ng Man-tat, Li Guangjie, Zhang Yichi, Arkady Sharogradsky, Mike Sui, Qu Jingjing, Yang Haoyu, Li Hongchen, Yang Yie, Jiang Zhigang, Zhang Huan. (Mandarin, French, Russian, Japanese, Korean, English dialogue)

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The Wandering Earth (2019)

Original title: 流浪地球.

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Currently you are able to watch "The Wandering Earth" streaming on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads.

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The Wandering Earth is 2653 on the JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts today. The movie has moved up the charts by 812 places since yesterday. In the United States, it is currently more popular than South Park the Streaming Wars Part 2 but less popular than Shane Gillis: Beautiful Dogs.

When the Sun begins to expand in such a way that it will inevitably engulf and destroy the Earth in a hundred years, united mankind finds a way to avoid extinction by propelling the planet out of the Solar System using gigantic engines, moving it to a new home located four light years away, an epic journey that will last thousands of years.

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Streaming Charts The JustWatch Daily Streaming Charts are calculated by user activity within the last 24 hours. This includes clicking on a streaming offer, adding a title to a watchlist, and marking a title as 'seen'. This includes data from ~1.3 million movie & TV show fans per day.

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The wandering earth.

2019 ‘流浪地球’ Directed by Frant Gwo

When the Sun begins to expand in such a way that it will inevitably engulf and destroy the Earth in a hundred years, united mankind finds a way to avoid extinction by propelling the planet out of the Solar System using gigantic engines, moving it to a new home located four light years away, an epic journey that will last thousands of years.

Qu Chuxiao Li Guangjie Zhao Jinmai Wu Jing Ng Man-tat Michael Kai Sui Qu Jingjing Zhang Yichi Haoyu Yang Arkady Sharogradsky Li Hongchen Yang Yi Jiang Zhigang Zhang Huan Lei Jiayin Ning Hao Liu Cixin Guo Jingfei Wang Zhi Zhang Zixian Lu Yang Zhang Ning Zhang Xiaobei Rao Xiaozhi Tao Luoyi Wu Xiaoliang Gong Geer Frant Gwo Guo Hexuan Show All… Li Zhuozhao

Director Director

Producer producer, writers writers.

Yang Zhixue Yan Dongxu Junce Ye Gong Geer Frant Gwo

Original Writer Original Writer

Editors editors.

Cheung Ka-Fai Ye Ruchang

Cinematography Cinematography

Executive producer exec. producer, production design production design, composers composers.

Tao Liu Roc Chen

Sound Sound

Wang Danrong Xu Liu

Costume Design Costume Design

China Film Group Corporation Beijing Jingxi Culture DF Pictures G!Film Studio Free Whale Pictures

Primary Language

Spoken languages.

Chinese English French Hindi Indonesian Japanese Korean Russian

Releases by Date

Theatrical limited, 08 feb 2019, 05 feb 2019, 18 apr 2019, 30 apr 2019, releases by country.

• Theatrical M
• Digital 12 Netflix
• Theatrical limited PG
• Digital Netflix

New Zealand

• Digital M/14 Netflix
• Digital PG13 Netflix

South Korea

• Theatrical 12
• Theatrical limited PG-13
• Digital PG-13 Netflix

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Popular reviews

Review by Les_Vampires ★★½ 3

I'm weirdly proud of China for being able to make their own Geostorm.

Review by davidehrlich ★½ 8

Billed as China’s first true sci-fi blockbuster, Frant Gwo’s ridiculously profitable (and borderline unwatchable) “The Wandering Earth” tells the story of a cursed future in which the sun has become unstable, and humanity’s only hope for survival are the 10,000 jet engines strong enough to dislodge our planet from its orbit and launch us toward a solar system that’s 4.2 light-years away.

Currently the second-highest grossing movie in Chinese box office history, and now dumped on Netflix without fanfare, Gwo’s film also tells the story of another cursed future — one that presents a more clear and present danger — in which the spectacle required to sustain popular cinema becomes so large that the industry congeals into a worldwide monoculture…

Review by matt lynch ★★★

Even more absurd than most Emmerich disasterpieces, with the DIRTY DOZEN-esque band of misfits on a massive CG-enhanced suicide space mission of ARMAGEDDON mixed in, and honestly it's as tasty as that sounds, all enlivened by a pretty refreshing spirit of collectivism. This really does earn its deep silliness.

Review by karen h. ★★★ 1

what if armageddon but more

Review by George Carmi ★★★½ 3

Disaster on a massive scale. A band of unlikely heroes on a suicide mission. The 2.8 average Letterboxd score kinda surprises me. There's a lot to love here and there's something about these disaster "world ending/fight for survival on a massive scale" films that attracts me. They're oddly comforting. The gripping set pieces and raw/dirty design of the set make for a very thrilling ride. Our characters coulda been fleshed out a bit better and tonally this film was all over the place, but nonetheless, a solid science fiction outing.

Review by BeHaind ★★★ 6

Wenn Square Enix alle jemals gedrehten Katastrophenfilme als zwei Stunden Final Fantasy-Zwischensequenz inszeniert hätte, im Weltraum, mit noch mehr Kitsch und Pathos und gleich sechs Drehbuchautoren, die sich das generelle Verständnis von Physik, Logik und naturwissenschaftlichen Verhältnismäßigkeiten auf die Schnelle bei Wikipedia zusammen gegoogelt haben, dann hätte das kaum besser aussehen können. 

„Wandering Earth“ ist ein Paradebeispiel dafür, wie eng Bauklötze-staunen und Kopfschütteln im Blockbusterkino manchmal beieinander liegen können. Wenn das Tiefgründigste im Film die gigantischen Erdrisse der Gravitationsbeben sind, dann sollte die Stoßrichtung kaum noch verwundern - alles ist ein bisschen wirr, die Charakterzeichnung kann nicht mal als planloser Versuch gewertet werden und eigentlich ergibt hier nichts so recht Sinn. Vor allem nicht die teils grotesk beschissenen Heldenansprachen.

Review by Tasha Robinson ★★★½ 1

China's first science-fiction blockbuster, based on Cixin Liu's short story, is full of spectacle — huge crowds of people struggling to cope with catastrophe, a city frozen in a giant block, up to the tops of the skyscraper, Jupiter looming over Earth, about to suck the planet into its gravity well. It's so achingly pretty at times, it's easy to forget that this is a pretty standard action thriller, complete with minimal characterization for the main cast, and by-the-number chase scenes and near-escapes. It's pretty much The Core plus 2012 plus an implacable AI straight out of 2001: A Space Odyssey , but much more visually artful and sentimental — especially toward the end, when a bunch of threads come together in a heady emotional way. Worth watching for spectacle fans, but also very interesting to see how China's cinematic ambitions are developing.

Full review for The Verge here.

Review by russman ★★★ 3

Jupiter Descending

Review by LeSchroeck ★★★ 5

Man nehme: 2001, 2012, Armageddon, Passengers, Geostorm, The Day After Tomorrow, Supernova, City of Ember, etwas Interstellar, Gravity und gefühlt jeden anderen Popcorn-Sci-Fi- oder Katastrophenstreifen der letzten 10 Jahre und presse sie ihn einen Film. Man füge hinzu: Wolf Warrior Wu Jing, Drug War-Veteran Guangjie Li, einen Regisseur, der erst 2 Filme gemacht hat, Kitsch, Chaos, Pathos oder Familiendrama mit der groben Kelle und eine Armee an CGI-Artists. Plus: etliche, 11.000 Meter hohe Triebwerke, mit denen man die Erde aus der Umlaufbahn der Sonne schiebt (was den halben Planet ausrottet), um mit ihr für 4,2 Lichtjahre durchs All zu düsen. Das Ergebnis: ein Film, der in 3 Wochen über 600 Millionen Dollar eingespielt hat. Dessen zweiter Held ständig von sich…

Review by Daniel Carolan ★★½ 3

Brilliant. America don’t feature at all, a biracial identifies as Chinese, Indians all wear turbans, Russians are our only friends and we, the mighty and proud Chinese, save the dying planet. 🇨🇳 起來！

2019  Added.

Review by YI JIAN ★★

I can't believe I let the locals trick me into thinking this movie is worth my time, it's actually mind-blowing how boring it is. Only thing memorable about it is when this space marine dude got so frustrated at Jupiter (the whole damn planet) and starts unloading all his ammo in its general direction yelling "Screw You" like it's the planet's fault you decide to steer Earth around like a big ship, what in the goddamn, someone get ben affleck to commentate on this.

Review by FoundOnYouTube ★★½

If you're into vulgar auteurism, particularly the works of Roland Emmerich, then you are going to love this movie. But for me, I found it to be middle-of-the-road.

Pros: The CGI and special effects are good. It is well-acted. The Wandering Earth explores themes of collectivism and international cooperation, in contrast to American/western films, such as Independence Day, which is all about individualism and patriotism. Collectivism hasn't been explored too much in the world of sci-fi, and that ideology can be seen throughout this film, except for that end scene with Liu Qi's dad. If you've seen the movie, you know what I mean.

Cons: The second act drags. The frozen wasteland of Shanghai is not a visually appealing or interesting setting. The underground cities are the most visually stimulating setting in this movie, and we are only in there for seconds.

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The UCSD Guardian

• Arts & Entertainment
• Films & TV

Film Review: “The Wandering Earth”

One of the highest grossing sci-fi movies was made available on Netflix, and you have probably never even heard of it.

Recently, Netflix announced and commenced its plans to distribute the Chinese blockbuster “The Wandering Earth.” Released in early February, the film is the third-highest grossing film of 2019, the second-highest grossing non-English film of all time, and China’s most successful science fiction motion picture endeavor to date. Yet, in spite of these achievements, Netflix’s decision to offer “The Wandering Earth” through its streaming service has garnered very little publicity and excitement in general. In an effort to understand why, I looked into both the film itself and Netflix’s distribution of it.

“The Wandering Earth,” directed by Frant Gwo, is an interstellar space epic based on a short novel of the same name by Liu Cixian. It is set in the future when the Sun has rapidly transforming into a red giant capable of engulfing Earth. In an effort to save themselves, humanity has attempted to physically move Earth out of the solar system using giant engines. As a result of the departure from the orbit of the Sun, humanity has been forced underground to escape the frozen surface. The film commences with Chinese astronaut Liu Peiqiang (Wu Jing) being sent to a space station that is designated to map the path that Earth will take. He entrusts his son, Liu Qi (Qu Chuxiao) to his father-in-law (Ng Man-tat) and departs, promising to return soon. Seventeen years later, Peiqiang is set to return to Earth. However, his plans are suddenly interrupted when his son is arrested for sneaking onto the surface. Moreover, as the Earth is nearing the orbit of Jupiter, the gravitational pull of the gas giant abruptly disables several Earth engines and begins to pull Earth into its orbit. Though separated by the expanse of space, together the father and son duo attempt to work in tandem to try to save the planet and all of humanity from an apocalyptic destruction.

“The Wandering Earth” is a wonderful cinematic experience that is extremely well-produced. The sets, CGI, and costumes are all meticulously and fantastically constructed. The color grading within the film is bold and rich. Yet, no amount of production can salvage the film’s convoluted writing and less than adequate character development. Not only does Gwo’s film contain almost every single sci-fi and fantasy trope there is, character arcs are confusing and shallow as certain characters seem only to exist to be killed off for dramatic effect. The apocalyptic cataclysm, the integral application of gravity, the apathetic artificial intelligence, the cybernetic military suits, and the space plot — ultimately, the story wound up feeling like a smorgasbord of monumental Hollywood sci-fi films haphazardly stuffed into one movie and packaged with vibrant visual effects. What little original content there is feels contrived and empty. For a Chinese sci-fi film, “The Wandering Earth” relies too heavily on mimicking the prior works and themes of many American films. While the movie may appeal to a Chinese audience unfamiliar with its recurring Hollywood sci-fi tenets, it perhaps might not contain the same sort of allure to their Western counterparts.

Apart from the film itself, Netflix’s distribution and advertising stratagem arguably also played a role in the lackluster fanfare of Gwo’s work. The streaming service released an English dubbed trailer for “The Wandering Earth” and advertised the acquisition of the film over its Asia division social media accounts in February. Yet, beyond these techniques, the company made little effort to draw attention to the official availability of the film to stream. Netflix did not make an official announcement nor did it include the Chinese blockbuster in its monthly list of new entertainment available in May. This is likely in response to the poor domestic performance of the film, which only grossed approximately $5 million across 22 cities in the United States. Thus, in essence, Netflix dumped Gwo’s film onto its site under the assumption that audiences outside China, where Netflix is banned, would have little interest in viewing the film.

“The Wandering Earth” marks China’s first official foray into the science fiction genre of film. Despite its massive success in Asia, the movie has failed to make much of an impact outside of the region. This disconnect can be attributed to both the nature of the film as a bland rip-off of other sci-fi works and also lack of publicity and advertisement that it received from its distributorNetflix. Although it may not necessarily possess a great deal of interest, Gwo’s sci-fi epic is an intriguing work and is worth at least flipping through should one have a subscription to Netflix.

Grade : C- Director: Frant Gwo Starring: Qu Chuxiao, Li Guangjie, Ng Man-tat, Zhao Jinm Release Date: February 5, 2019 Rated: PG-13

Image courtesy of Netflix.

• Science Fiction
• The Wandering Earth

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cyberflix • Jul 17, 2019 at 5:24 am

I enjoy this movie a lot and I feel Im blessed to take birth on earth, thank you.

Jennifer • Jul 11, 2019 at 5:51 pm

Es sind maximal 0 von 8 Trophäen erspielbar.