The Wandering Earth II - Movie Review

 

The Wandering Earth II

Movie Review

 

The Wandering Earth 2 is a Chinese science fiction -adventure film directed and co-written by Frant Gwo, and starring Andy Lau, Wu Jing, and Li Xuejian. The film is a sequel to the 2019 film, The Wandering Earth, which is based on the short story of the same name by Liu Cixin.

The Wandering Earth 2 tells the story of the Moving Mountain Project, which turns Earth into a giant spaceship. The story of director Frant Gwo's film The Wandering Earth 2 covers the period from 2044 to 2065 and is filled with subplots, many of which are overly sentimental and unnecessarily taken away from the main plot. So many stories and plots are thrown at the viewer that it can be difficult to keep track of them all or know which ones are important and which ones are distracting.

At the start of the film, the United Earth Government (UEG) is established, the first of thousands of giant engines needed to move Earth out of the reach of the impending solar crisis. But support for the project is not universal, and an alternative movement, the Digital Life Project, has emerged. They believe it is better to upload humanity's consciousness into an artificial reality like the Matrix, and are afraid to resort to violence to get their way.

Digital Life terrorists attack UEG sites, the background of the first film's characters Liu Peiqiang and Han Duoduo, the moon is about to disintegrate. Andy Lau becomes a scientist who keeps the soul of his dead child in an AI body. The drama revolves around who will be housed in the underground cities, and who will be left on the surface to face death, love, terminal illness, and some other complications.

It would have been better if The Wandering Earth 2 had ditched many of its subplots and tightened the focus of the film. Those action sequences are notable for having better CGI than the original. You can see the difference in the first big set piece, the attack on the space elevator that connects Earth to the space station. The sky is full of drones, fighter jets, explosions, debris, etc., and most of it is well done. Similarly, the moon parting scenes are well shot. Other scenes, such as the ship caught in a tsunami, are less convincing.

Unfortunately, the special effects aren't the only thing improved in the sequel. The nationalism and racism of the first film are exaggerated in The Wandering Earth 2. From a British Prime Minister resembling an exaggerated caricature of Boris Johnson to portraying Americans against a moving mountain plan, it's the end of the world. A hundred years away, it doesn't have to worry about the future. Although nationalism and anti-Western sentiments are to some extent expected, the portrayal of certain ethnic groups approaches outright racism and is unacceptable.

From a narrative perspective, the biggest problem with The Wandering Earth 2 is that we know how it ends. Although the fate of some characters is uncertain, we know that the project will overcome the obstacles and succeed. It's a problem that all prequels face, and very few can overcome. The end result of all of this is that The Wandering Earth 2 is often visually appealing but often drags between those scenes, dragging too much at three hours.

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